


Heros In-Between

by TheEvilAuthoress



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Birthday Party, Bisexual Atticus, Chazz has lightning magic, Fluff, Found Family, GX Month 2020, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Reincarnation, Sibling Arguments, mentions of Fianceshipping - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:54:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 29,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26205286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEvilAuthoress/pseuds/TheEvilAuthoress
Summary: Collection of prompts for GX Month 2020.
Relationships: Black Magician Girl | Dark Magician Girl/Marufuji Shou | Syrus Truesdale, Marufuji Ryou | Zane Truesdale/Tenjouin Fubuki | Atticus Rhodes
Comments: 33
Kudos: 17





	1. "Game on!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s Judai/Jaden Yuki’s birthday today! Let’s celebrate!

Jaden doesn’t do birthdays.

He has maybe one or two memories of cake and candles and his parents’ faces, a couple more surrounded by friends and presents. After that it’s just a card and present or two left on the dining room table of an empty house.

Christina tries at least. She drags him out of the empty house and over to her place. There’s cake and candles and presents that actually match his interests and off key singing. Her mother cooks his favorite dishes. They duel.

It’s bittersweet, but it’s better than hiding under his blanket with his GameBoy all day.

* * *

/I’m heading to Yugi’s today. You should come too!/

Biting his lip, Jaden glances at the calendar and wonders if he’s gotten the days mixed up again. But, no, the home screen of the Duel Academy issued PDA proudly proclaims _August 31_. He looks back at Christina’s message. They hadn’t made any plans which isn’t unusual - Christina usually just shows up to drag him off, so that’s the weird part of this situation.

This is the first time they’ve both had cell phones tho.

He stares at the message, rubbing his thumb against the side of the device, until Winged Kuriboh trills at him to respond instead of sitting here angsting about it.

“Okay, okay- I am not!” Jaden protests.

Winged Kuriboh snorts.

Groaning, Jaden sends his reply.

/maybe/

/3 o’clock! Bring an overnight bag!/

“Are you even listening to me?” Jaden grumbles, but he has to admit to curiosity. This will hardly be his first time at Christina’s cousin’s house, but sleepovers had gotten rarer over the years.

“Oh, fine!” Jaden huffs as Winged Kuriboh headbutts him, tossing off the sheet he’d wrapped himself in to actually get dressed. It’s a little after 1 so he might as well get his stuff and leave now. The train to Domino alone will take an hour.

Ugh. He forgot how much he hated riding this thing alone.

* * *

The lights in the game shop out front are off, the door locked, so Jaden goes around to the side door and knocks. Muto-san lets him in.

“Judai! Glad you could make it.” The woman smiles warmly as Jaden toes his shoes off. “Christina’s in the living room.”

“Kay.” It’s a fairly mundane exchange. The few times Christina has dragged him over here on this day in the past, the woman nearly squeezed the daylights out of him. It felt like he might break, but he also felt really safe. He’s still confused by the memory but it’s a good one.

Did everyone forget? That’s not possibly, right?

Kuriboh chirps at him again when he stalls too long in the genkan, and Jaden tries not to look like he jumps at nothing but air. “Alright!” he hisses out the side of his mouth and stalks down the short hallway.

Great. He’s in a bad mood now, and he hates dealing with people when he’s in a bad mood. Christina’s okay, but Yugi and Gramps have only seen his sunny side. Why is it so exhausting to be happy all the time?

“SURPRISE!”

Jaden shrieks as he rounds the corner to an explosion of bright colors and popping noises. It takes him what feels like an eternity to realize he’s just been assaulted with confetti by _his friends who definitely don’t live in Domino_.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JADEN!” they chorus, every single one of them and what the actual fuck _how_??

“What?” He blinks dumbly at them, confetti dangling in his face and too stunned to even tell a giggling Winged Kuriboh to shut up.

“We came all this way to surprise you!” Alexis beams. Huh, she looks pretty good out of uniform; the kapris are definitely more practical than those stupid skirts.

“It was Christina’s idea!” Syrus declares, the redhead in question practically vibrating where she stands like she’ll explode into confetti herself any moment. It’s been a long time since he’s seen her that excited. “I was so nervous on the train I nearly missed my stop! But it was worth it!”

“Ha! My brother’s got you beat there. This idiot tried to board the wrong train,” Alexis scoffs, slapping the back of her hand against Atticus’s arm.

“Heeey!” the older boy whines, pouting dramatically. “It was an honest mistake!”

“Well, whatever mishaps on the way, we all got here,” Bastion interrupts, standing proud and tall as always, and Jaden might be a tiny bit delusional but he could swear Bastion looks proud of _him_ . “And I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be. You’re one year older. Congratulations, chap!” Bastion claps him on the shoulder and Jaden’s eyes don’t deceive him; the smartest kid in his grade, if not the whole school, is _proud_ of him for simply turning 16!

Since when are birthdays an accomplishment to be proud of?!

Oh, right, this is the part where Jaden is supposed to smile, not stare at his friends like a dead fish. “R-right!” Did his voice just crack? His face feels creaky and numb. Oh god, is doing the serial killer smile?

“Who wants cake?” a boisterous voice calls, saving Jaden from falling further into panicked thoughts as its owner sweeps out of the kitchen holding a _massive_ cake.

“Chumley?!”

“Yeah, duh! I wouldn’t miss your birthday for the world!” the newly hired card designer declares. “And I got a leave of absence, don’t worry! Apparently Mr. Pegasus is pretty big on the whole family and friends thing.”

Jaden can only gape. Then he notices Chazz lurking behind Chumley, his trademark scowl and dark clothing at total odds with the lopsided, brightly colored party hat someone else must have forced onto his head, and Jaden just loses it. The hysterical giggles bubble up his throat and he’s wheezing before he even understands what’s going on. But he’s...happy? No way, this has gotta be more than just ‘happy’. Jaden doesn’t think he’s _felt_ so much in years!

“C’mere you guys!” He throws himself at them, instigating a group hug as Syrus squeaks and rushes to catch him. He hides the tears in Atticus’ shoulder and laughs instead of sobs. Christina’s hands finds his and he squeezes.

He has to swallow the ache in his throat again, when he sees the mountain of presents on the table.

“We may have gone a bit overboard.” Atticus laughs sheepishly.

“Dad’s gonna murder you when he sees the credit card balance,” Alexis grumbles.

“Oh, posh! Nothing is too big a sacrifice for Jaden’s big day!”

Jaden doesn’t even know what he’s gonna do with all this stuff! They end up building the model Gundam kits together. Jaden’s never had so much fun with those things.

He also gets that soul squeezing hug from Mama Muto.

“Thanks,” he whispers later, sitting on the couch with Christina while their friends argue over a puzzle strewn across the table.

“It wasn’t entirely my idea,” she hums, thumb rubbing his knuckle in a familiar, soothing rhythm. “Syrus wanted to know when your birthday was and pouted when he realized it’d be during summer break. When I told him you weren’t really fond of your birthday anyway, I guess he told Atticus and, well... Atticus got it in his head to throw you the ‘best birthday ever’. Mom doesn’t have enough space for a big party so I asked Yugi if Gramps and Aunty would mind. And here we are.” She smiles at him, so genuine and pure.

His throat aches again. He ignores it.

“Yeah. Best birthday ever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Precious fluffy boi!
> 
> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	2. “Red, Yellow, Blue!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ah, the tier system at Duel Academy. Which dorm is your favorite?

The Slifer Red Dorms are cramped and dingy. There are cracks in the walls and peeling paint. The furniture always feels two days away from earning a one way ticket to the dump, the sheets are itchy, and don’t even get him started on the bug problem. The water is always cold, except for the rare days it comes out hot enough to burn your skin off. The food is warm at least if a bit under seasoned, but it’s pretty easy to get tired of the same five meals day in, day out.

The Ra Yellow dorms are like a whole nother planet. Modest rooms, clean sheets, no roommates, fresh paint, warm communal baths on every floor, and five course meals. The upgrade should be a welcome relief, but the little room with its white walls look so barren and empty when he has it all to himself.

The Obelisk Blue dorms may as well be a different universe. Each room is huge, often multi sectional, and come with private baths! It’s like living in a miniature palace. Everything a person could ever dream of - unlimited TV, personal fridge, plush pillows, silk sheets, spacious balcony, scenic view - all in one room. It’s a little overwhelming.

Objectively, out of all the dorms, Obelisk Blue is probably the best one to live in. Still, Syrus always finds himself circling back to that cramped little room in Slifer Red where Jaden always snores and Christina and Chazz fight over the top bunk and Hassleberry flops down a mattress that takes up the whole floor and makes it near impossible to walk.

Sure, Ra and Obelisk might have clean rooms and hot baths, but his friends are right here in Slifer Red.

It’s the people that make a house a home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	3. “Rule the School”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These kids might be saving the world, but they’re still students with homework to do and exams to pass. Celebrate the school life today!

“I have made a terrible mistake,” the redhead groans into the table after class ends. Hm, she’s the one who was hanging out with that Jaden kid at the entrance exams. Christina, wasn’t it?

“And what mistake would that be?” Bastion asks as he collects his notes. Christina’s currently face down in her own notes, pencil slipping out of her fingers as if she simply gave up at some point.

“This class...”

“Ah.” Bastion subdues an automatic snort. The minds of his peers have such an underdeveloped appreciation for academics. “Not a fan of dueling history?”

“That’s just it, I _am_ .” Christina peels her face away from her desk to protest. “I _like_ dueling history but that guy...” She waves a hand at the empty podium below, scowling as if it personally wronged her. “He sounds like a dead fish!” she finally huffs. “Can’t he put _any_ enthusiasm into this? Why is he even teaching this class? He’s going to put me to sleep!”

Oh. Well this is... Bastion does snort this time, a gentle smile turning up his lips. “It’s not every day I find someone willing to complain about the delivery instead of the subject material,” he admits as Christina turns to look at him with curiosity. “You must be quite passionate about this subject.”

“Well, duh,” she grumbles into her arm, once more scowling at the podium. Come to think of it, during roll call hadn’t her surname been...?

“Ah, yes. I suppose you would be,” Bastion concludes aloud and finds himself instantly subjected to a suspicious glare. “Relax, I don’t care one way or the other who you’re related to. Your skill is what truly matters. Anything else is rude.”

“Whaddaya know. The smart guy is actually polite.” She cocks her head at him.

“Excuse me?”

“Thought you were kind of a know-it-all after what you said to Jaden the other day.” Leaning back in her seat, Christina stretches her arms out and cracks her knuckles. “But you might not be so bad after all.” Flashing him a cheeky grin, she stands and gathers her notes. “Later, Misawa.”

Unexpected. Very unexpected. She didn’t even ask to borrow his notes.

Maybe Duel Academy will be more entertaining than middle school after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	4. “Sometimes I Can’t Believe We’re Related”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 10Join! Today is all about the iconic brother-sister pair, Fubuki Tenjoin/Atticus Rhodes and Asuka Tenjoin/Alexis Rhodes!

Alexis is used to secondhand embarrassment by now, she grew up with this buffoon for a brother after all. But being used to something doesn’t make one unaffected by it, or make her want to strangle Atticus any less for his antics.

Singing randomly made up verses to cheer her on? Yeah, that’s been a thing for years; she can mostly tune it out. A flying entrance on wires into the duel arena? Scared her senseless the first time she saw that stunt cuz all she could think about was Atticus crashing. Now she just face palms and rolls with it. Flashy lights, gaudy outfits? Cringe worthy but nothing new.

That thing with Chazz she probably could have let go if it hadn’t nearly caused the end of the world.

 _That_ she will hold over his head for the next century.

Honestly, Alexis has never been a person for the limelight. She’d been content to blend in middle school, awkwardly avoiding attention when she’d ‘blossomed’ and everyone suddenly thought she was super pretty. Atticus, meanwhile, tried out for every school play, ran for class rep, organized club meetings, and was almost constantly hanging out with people. He was loud and outgoing while Alexis preferred quiet solitude. They're such opposites it’s sometimes infuriating.

So it’s weird that they basically have the same friend group now, but all of Atticus’ previous friends have graduated and Jaden attracts people like a magnet.

Speaking of Jaden...

“Come oooon, Lexi!” Atticus whines, draped over the back of the couch. “You can tell me!”

“Absolutely not!” Alexis snaps, arms crossed firmly. “Where did you even get this ridiculous notion in the first place?”

“Cuz you’re blushing! Come on who’s the lucky guy? Or gal? I don’t judge!”

“Atticus!!” Her sexuality is _not_ the question here! “There isn’t anyone!” Definitely _not_ a certain bright eyed, bubblehead brunette. If Atticus ever finds out about that fiance fiasco, it will be the end of her.

“You’re lying~”

“I am not!”

“You always get super mad when I hit the nail on the head. I can read you like a book, Lexi~”

Of all the nerve! He actually has the gall to wink at her! “Just cuz we’re related doesn’t give you the right to go prying into my personal life!”

“You should tell him.”

“If I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it!” Alexis snaps. “Besides, _you_ haven’t even told Zane.”

“Actually I did.”

“What?” Alexis’ train of thought stumbles to a halt as her brother stares smugly back at her. Atticus had been - poorly - dancing around his crush on Zane for years now.

“Well, not in so many words, I guess, but he knows.” Atticus leans thoughtfully back on his knees, looking so utterly content that-

“Are you two-”

“Now who’s prying, Lexi~?”

Alexis snaps her mouth shut and dearly wants to punch Atticus in his smug little face. She decides storming out of the room is a better option than assault. Atticus’ laugh in her ears disagrees with that sentiment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	5. “Pass The Salt”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No story is perfect. So what is something you wish you could have seen in the story of GX?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Season 4. Season 4 and I have issues. So here is a condensed version of the things that should have happened between the trauma of Dark World and the bullshit of the Darkness plot.

Jaden avoids them after he finally returns from the shitshow of Dark World. They try to reach out, but he straight up disappears to parts unknown. Somehow, Jesse can always find him but even he stops looking after a while. It’s not that they aren’t worried, they are, but they have school and their own trauma to deal with and it’s hard to help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.

Jaden falls through the cracks.

Jesse definitely tells North Academy to _‘faen ta deg’_ \- whatever that means - when the other schools start a ruckus and demand the exchange students be returned to their own campuses. Axel and Jim follow suit and eventually the other schools back off.

Of course Chancellor Shepard tries to put them all in therapy, but how are any of them supposed to even begin explaining what they went through? And who would actually believe them?

It’s Jim’s idea to start the group talks, to give themselves a safe space to just talk about shit and deal with the fallout. They only have one rule: everyone has to share something. It can be big or small, or completely unrelated to Dark World, but they all _have_ to share one thing that’s been bothering them. Even if they end up screaming at each other or crying, that’s okay because the whole point is to express themselves. Even on days where bottled emotions explode, they still come away feeling better or just relieved by the release of a burden.

Jaden continues to avoid them. When the tension between him and Christina finally snaps, Jesse intervenes and Jaden starts crashing in his room. Which is fine, despite ill concealed jealousy; with his newfound ability, Jesse’s gained an appreciation for the absurdly large room - Amber Mammoth can fit comfortably.

Jaden still refuses to talk about Yubel, but it’s not like Jesse can fault the guy when he still hasn’t said anything about the scars on his back.

Slowly, Jaden starts to open up again.

* * *

It’s a surprise when Jim shows up to the group talk with Jaden in tow. Honestly, it was bound to happen eventually; Christina just figured it would have been her or Jesse or maybe Syrus doing the dragging. Jaden, for his part, sits with his knees folded against his chest, looking very much like he just wants to leave, but he’s sandwiched between Jim and Axel who aren’t letting him go anywhere.

 _Good,_ Christina thinks, trying to curb the lingering bitterness from when Jaden tried to ditch the Academy a couple weeks ago.

Today’s pretty low key, mostly grievances about classwork and graduation. Most of them have aired their dirty laundry from Dark World by now. So when silence falls around the group, more than one pair of eyes linger on Jaden, still hugging his knees, and hasn’t said a word yet.

“I’ve been meaning to apologize.” Alexis breaks the silence, staring somberly at the floor. “Back in that other dimension, I said some horrible things.”

Jaden jerks but no one else is actually looking at him now, too distracted by their confusion. Christina almost missed it, but years of hanging out with the same single person can attune you to even the smallest shift in their demeanor.

“At the time, I was so hurt and confused, but that’s not how I always feel. That resentment was only fleeting.” Alexis looks up, and Jaden stiffens under her gaze. Wait just a damn second- “I’m sorry, Jaden. I didn’t mean any of it.”

“You still believed it...” Christina murmurs in the blissful few seconds of silence before half their circle erupts at what should have been the most obvious epiphany of all time.

“Sarge!” Hassleberry's hands hit the floor with enough force to shake it as he rocks forward in a frantic fervor. “I didn’t mean it either! I don’t hate you! I swear!”

“Yeah, no! It’s like Lexi said, our emotions were all jumbled!” Atticus jumps in, probably half a step away from trying to hug all the bad feelings out of Jaden. “That’s not how we really feel! Come, Chazz, tell him.”

“What? Why do I have to--”

“CHAZZ.”

Chazz flinches under the ire of the other guilty four, curling in on himself with a scowl, and mutters, “Yeah, okay, I’m sorry too. Wasn’t your fault.”

Jaden’s shoulders shake, his face in his knees. Gently, Jim places a hand against his back.

“Jaden...?”

He slowly peeks up from his knee at the soft call of his name, and just that action alone must have been one hell of a feat for him. Prior to recent events, Christina hasn’t seen Jaden cry in years. Now, his tears are on display for everyone.

“Oh, Jaden.” Alexis is the first to bridge the gap while the others reel over the revelation. “I’m so sorry.”

He shudders with a quiet sob but doesn’t resist as she gently wraps him in her arms. Syrus and Hassleberry immediately scramble to latch onto either side of their ‘big bro’, and Atticus drags a reluctant Chazz into the group hug.

“There, there, slacker, let it out.” Chazz winces and awkwardly pats when Jaden finally lets out a particularly loud wail.

“We all love you, Sarge. Ya gotta remember that.”

“You don’t have to be our leader, or smile all the time. Just be you.”

It’s heartbreaking, watching as all of Jaden’s walls crumble and the fragile boy beneath shatter; but all of them are here to help him pick up the pieces.

“So _what_ happened?” Jesse whispers, eyes shining with confusion even as they move forward to join their friends.

“I’m an idiot.” Christina swipes the tears out of her own eyes, mad at herself for not realizing sooner. Jesse even _said_ Jaden seemed like he was afraid of something. All the times he demanded to know what happened after his disappearance and Christina still managed to gloss over a crucial detail that kickstarted this spiral.

“Well, it all worked out in the end,” Jesse murmurs.

“Thanks to you.”

“H-hold on. I’m the reason this mess started in the first place.”

Shaking her head, Christina leans into him as much as her other friends. She’s had enough of the blame game. She knows without a doubt that Jesse played a pivotal role in all of this and will continue to do so for better or worse.

The connections between them are tangled as fuck after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a vast headcanon for this series and these prompts are only the tip of the iceberg.
> 
> "Faen ta deg": literally "devil take you", basically the same as "go to hell" with the vulgarity of a "fuck you". Day 4 of little to no sleep, Jaden was still missing, and Jesse was straight up DONE with the bullshit. Foster/Ichinose laughed his ass off.
> 
> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	6. “Going Down With The Ships!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know what I’m talking about. We all have an armada parked in the bay, but there’s that one ship, _that one ship,_ that you would die for. Today is all about OTPs and OT3s!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll admit I wanted to write about Fianceshipping too, but my headcanons for Idol are more in-depth and this got pretty long.

“So what clubs are you thinking about joining?”

“Definitely music if they have one!” It’s the first week of middle school and Atticus practically vibrates as he walks towards the cafeteria with his new friend. New school, new people to meet, friends to make, and fun adventures to be had! And Atticus fully plans to make the most of it! “Or maybe track. Man, I’d love if there were a surfing club!”

Tashiro laughs. “This far inland?”

“You never know! I could try to start one!”

“Just joining the swimming club if you wanna play in water that badly.” Tashiro shakes his head, and Atticus gasps at him.

“For shame! How dare you compare the art of surfing to swimming! It’s like apples and oranges!”

“Still both fruit.” A cheeky grin.

Any further dramatic protest dies in his throat as another boy rounds the corner ahead and walks toward them with an open book. Atticus freezes where he stands.

He likes to people watch, so he’s noticed things recently. Girls have always been pretty, but lately...well, just this last week, he’s found himself comparing who looks better in their gym outfit like _huh you’re kinda pretty wait that’s a dude_ or _oo that shirt really shows off your muscles nice_. It’s been confusing to say the least.

“Tenjoin?” Tashiro calls, but Atticus can’t bring himself to answer with his eyes glued to quite possibly the best looking person he has ever seen in his life _please shove me against a locker and **wreck** me_.

The guy passes, seemingly oblivious to Atticus’ eyes following him, and Atticus finally, finally peels his eyes away and snaps his jaw shut. How wrecked does he even look right now? Is he blushing? He’s gotta be blushing. Well, one thing is for sure.

“I’m not straight,” he croaks.

“Dude, what?”

* * *

The docks are peaceful. The sound of the waves lull Zane’s mind and emotions into a tranquil silence, not the buzzing numbness he’s learned to carry with him to combat the chaotic tempo from a life of stress. Out here, with the smell of salt on a gentle breeze, he feels relaxed.

It will be graduation soon.

He always thought they would graduate together.

Atticus’ disappearance hit Zane harder than he would have expected. The boy was practically sunshine incarnate when they met in middle school, something Zane never thought he’d be comfortable with. And yet Atticus barreled through all his defenses in a matter of weeks of and they’d been best friends ever since.

“Hey. I thought I’d find you out here.”

Zane turns at the sound of the voice. Atticus walks down the dock with a friendly wave and gentle smile on his lips. It’s not the same sunshine-and-rainbows smile it used to be, but it’s honest.

“So, nearly the big day, huh?” He leans casually against the light post. “You nervous?”

“It’d be stupid not to be,” Zane scoffs, relaxing into the familiar banter in a way even the ocean waves can’t induce.

Atticus laughs and sound warms Zane. His friend’s eyes are still haunted, but they’re also still just as warm as they’ve always been. Zane isn’t as oblivious as Atticus might want to believe; he sees the way Atticus looks at him, has looked at him for years. The emotions in those brown eyes have evolved, but the core of it all stays the same.

Atticus “the ladies man” fell for another man. It’s almost funny. He’s not even that subtle about it. But Atticus had never pressed the matter, and Zane can’t say he minds.

“Gotta admit tho, I’m kinda sad.” Atticus lowers his eyes to the wood under his feet. “Always thought it’d be the three of us, you know?” Shrugging, he lifts his gaze to the dark sky.

Zane does know. “You still don’t remember what happened?”

Atticus shakes his head. “If I did, I’d tell you. I have a feeling not telling you is what led to all of this.”

Zane doesn’t bother answering that. He’s fairly certain Atticus knew something about Yusuke’s disappearance at the time, but Atticus became edgy, evasive, and almost distant before his own disappearance. Zane blamed himself for doing nothing despite the warning signs. Now, he knows enough to doubt he’d have been able to do much.

He still wishes he’d tried.

“It’s fine,” he says automatically.

Atticus snorts. “Liar.”

Warm solid arms wrap around him and Zane leans into it.

“Nothing about this is fine,” Atticus’s voice shakes.

No, but sometimes one needs to pretend in order to survive.

It’s tiring.

They stand there like that for a while in the peaceful ambiance of the sea until finally making their way back to the dorms.

“Hey,” Atticus says, pulling them to a stop outside the doors. He looks troubled. “Just this once,” he murmurs, tugging on Zane’s jacket as he presses their lips-

What the fuck?!

By the time Zane’s brain reboots itself, Atticus has already run off into the building, and Zane stands there, hand to his lips, severely confused and reevaluating the last six years of his life.

* * *

Zane books a different trip from the island than the rest of his fellow graduates, he doesn’t want to feel cramped in the same space as dozens of other people, so the farewell fanfare has moved on as well. It’s just him and docks, and that’s how he likes it most days.

The quiet gives him space to think.

 _Just this once_ , Atticus said, and Zane’s not sure if he’s okay with that. If he’s completely honest with himself, Atticus is one of very few - if not the only - people that Zane feels comfortable and related around. He’s well grounded and practical under that playboy attitude of his, and he’s, well...Zane can understand to a certain extent why half the student population _wants_ to fawn over him (not why they _do_ \- that is a level of impulse Zane can’t comprehend - but why they _want_ to).

“Hey~!”

Speak of the devil. Zane jolts out of his thoughts as Atticus jogs over, waving his arm excited.

“Geez! Were you gonna leave without saying goodbye?” Atticus pouts dramatically. “I thought I was your bestie!”

“Who else would be?”

“Exactly! No one but me can crack that cold, stoic shell of yours!”

Zane rolls his eyes.

“Hey! That’s the part where you’re supposed to laugh! Damn, I must be out of practice...”

“Atticus,” Zane says, and the other teen looks up from his mussing to give Zane his full attention.

Now or never.

Steeling himself, Zane takes the plunge. He has zero idea what he’s doing but Atticus should get the message regardless if he mimics the other’s action from a few days ago. His brain doesn’t short circuit on him this time, thank gods.

“I don’t want it to be ‘just once’.”

Atticus stares at him like a deer in the headlights. Zane...expected something more. He expected Atticus to squeal or squeeze him or something, but all that comes in a shuddering breath and _HOLD ON WAIT BACK UP WHY YOU ARE CRYING?!_

“I- damnit Zane you’re graduating I’m such an idiot!”

The carefully constructed _I’m okay, nothing’s changed_ facade breaks apart in front of him and for the first two seconds Zane spirals into PANIC before the word vomit makes sense and drags him out of it.

“It wasn’t you.” Zane pulls the shaking mess against him. “You’re not that subtle. I’ve known for awhile. I just...refused to acknowledge it.”

“And then I was gone for two years.”

“Worse two years of my life,” Zane admits, and surprisingly means it, despite all the other bullshit. “I didn’t...expect this reaction.”

“I didn’t think I was going to cry either!” Atticus angrily swipes at the tears in his eyes. “Do you _know_ how many times I fantasized about this? Crying was not part of the equation!”

“At least I know it’s honest.”

“Huh?”

“You fake your smile half the time.”

Atticus huffs. “It’s just how I cope.”

 _Pretending to be okay will break you,_ Zane could say, but that would just be hypocritical. He ruffles Atticus’ hair instead and revels in how Atticus leans into it.

“I’m glad tho,” Atticus whispers, then looks shyly up through his bangs. _Shy_ is never a word anyone would associate with Atticus, but Zane knows better; he’s one of the few who gets to see that more vulnerable side. “Can you kiss me again?”

Zane obliges. Atticus’ lips are warm and soft, his face still damp, and it still sends tingles through Zane’s own lips down his chest. Butterflies? Huh, so that’s what it feels like. He could definitely get used to this.

Atticus smiles when they part, a small, gentle curve that Zane knows is genuine. “Next time, I want you to wreck me.” He winks.

Wreck what...? _Oh._ Snorting, Zane hides his face in his hand. Gods, this guy... “Next time. Sure.”

* * *

Halfway across the dock, Syrus stands frozen midstep, turns around, and walks away. Zane probably didn’t wanna see him anyway. _What the fuck was that?!_ Nope, not gonna ask, none of his business. Zane can kiss whoever the frick he wants. Just keep walking.

And if Syrus feels the ghost of arms around his shoulders, he stubbornly ignores it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny bit of Fantasyshipping there at the end. I like the idea that even people who can't see duel spirits can sometimes feel the ghost impression of their touch.
> 
> Headcanon: Zane has zero idea how to handle crying and therefore panics.
> 
> Headcanon: Zane's response to anxiety is SHUTDOWN IMMANENT. Speaking from experience, not all anxiety is visible. Sometimes you freeze and shut down, unable to speak or react. And sometimes you slam a wall down between yourself and your emotions and loose the ability to feel them.
> 
> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	7. “Bring the THUNDER”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ichi! Juu! Hyaku! Sen! Chazz it up! Today the world does in fact revolve around Jun Manjoume/Chazz Princeton.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Headcanon: Jesse was one of the duelists Chazz had to beat when he entered North Academy.
> 
> Headcanon: They were roommates.
> 
> Headcanon: Chazz makes electronics go sparky-BOOM, change my mind. He legit fried his computer in season 3 with no explanation. Conclusion: magic! He has been conveniently ignoring this fact.

Chazz’s life has always been governed by rules. How to act, how to speak, how to eat, who to associate with, what activities to engage in - sometimes it even feels like his family wants to control how he _thinks_.

The pressure is stifling, to say the least.

The first time he fries a piece of electronics, it’s an old handheld video game that Slade bought for him on the sly and made Chazz promise to keep secret. He doesn’t remember what he got mad about - a game mechanic, a boss he couldn’t beat, maybe he was just venting his anger at a tutor - but he remembers the sparks that crackled off the casing and the device spewing smoke. He screamed, the smoke detector went off, and the commotion drew his parents. Both he and Slade were severely admonished, and the way Slade glared at him with utter contempt has prevented Chazz from asking him for anything to this very day.

A part of him knew even then that he was the black sheep.

It was only a matter of time before he cracked.

* * *

Losing to Jaden is humiliating. It should have been an easy win when his deck was stacked with the most powerful and rare cards Duel Academy could get its hands on. His one saving grace is that his brothers don’t know about it.

Losing to Bastion is salt in the wound, and the impending dorm demotion is the last straw. He runs away with his tail between his legs because he can already hear his brother’s scathing voices. His frustration fries his cell phone - not that he had service anyway - then the motor on the boat. So he’s stranded in the middle of nowhere, slowly running out of water, and starting to hallucinate.

And it’s all Jaden fucking Yuki’s fault!

Oh. There goes his last water bottle.

Sheer dumb luck has him crashing against the shore of North Academy. He’d be more pissed about the loss of his deck if those ‘powerful cards’ hadn’t failed him one too many times before. The cards he holds now are trash in comparison, his pride is in tatters, but he’s still Chazz Manjoume and he won’t let such a trivial thing as shitty cards hold him back.

He swears to god, if this snot eyed yellow booger doesn’t _shut up_ \--

“That’s not very nice.” His current opponent frowns, wielding a deck Chazz had been confused by the familiarity of until realizing it was the one of a kind deck that Manjoume group practically begged Pegasus to sell. So this was the kid he gave it to? Anderson something? “You should respect the cards in your deck more.”

“Respect?” Chazz scoffs. “They’re just cards.”

Anderson laughs, actually _laughs_ at him and the sound pisses him off more than he can understand why. “Aw c’mon. You and I both know that ain’t true.” He throws a flashy grin at Chazz- no, not at Chazz, at the ball of snot floating over Chazz’s shoulder.

“He can see me!” the thing squeaks.

“Shut up!” Chazz snaps.

It’s a close game, but Chazz still wins. In fact, despite not being the top of North Academy’s ranks, Anderson is the only opponent he actually struggled against. The way he smiles and jokes around and _talks to his cards_ strikes Chazz as oddly familiar. When he realizes why, it pisses him the fuck off.

_I thought I left Jaden back at Duel Academy!_

Jesse Anderson is a bonafide carbon copy of Jaden Yuki and Chazz gets stuck as the bastard’s roommate.

_WHY, universe?! What have I done to deserve this HELL?!_

_...Don’t answer that._

* * *

Chazz likes to think he has above average perception of his surroundings. But any perception he may or may not have takes a forced vacation when he’s hyperfouced on a boss battle, leaving him ill prepared to deal with any changes around him.

“Whatcha playin’?”

Chazz shrieks at the voice by his ear. A familiar static surges through his fingers. “NONONONONO!” He drops the GameBoy too late as the screen glitches out and goes black, smoke now rising from the ruined device. He almost beat the game this time!

“Did you just...shoot lightning out of your fingers?” Chazz can’t tell if Anderson is more shocked or awed by the prospect.

“No!” Yes? Maybe? Chazz has never really taken the time to contemplate why almost every electronic he touches eventually explodes; he’s usually too busy freaking out and trying to hide the evidence from his family. Huh. Guess he doesn’t really need to worry about that anymore.

“That’s awesome! You have, like, magic powers!”

“Excuse me??” The hell is Anderson on about now? Magic?? As if!

“I mean, I can talk to Duel Monsters, but that’s so cool.” Anderson rubs the ears of the carbuncle on his shoulder. He can do a hell of a lot more than ‘talk’; Chazz can’t even _touch_ Ojama Yellow! “I wish I could do something like that.”

“No, you don’t!” Chazz snaps before realizing he’s defaulted back to Japanese. Huffing, he decides he doesn’t want to explain what a nightmare this ‘power’ has been for him. Eventually, Anderson gives up on asking.

* * *

“Hey, Thunder!”

The voice sets his teeth on edge, and Chazz turns his best _fuck off_ scowl on Anderson. It’s bad enough they share a room, he doesn’t want Jaden’s soul twin following him around during class hours. “Why does everyone keep calling me that?”

Anderson tilts his head. “You said your name was ‘Manjoume Sanda’, like ‘thunder’, right?”

No, that is absolutely not what Chazz meant at all; he was correcting the fuckers for not using the proper honorific and accidentally screamed it in Japanese. Of course the damn foreigners heard _thunder_ instead of _-san da_.

“Besides I think it fits.” That damn grin is back.

Chazz snubs his nose in the air instead punching the brat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Suuure.” Patting Chazz’s shoulder - _what the fuck? don’t touch me!_ \- Anderson thankfully jogs off as he spots his actual friend across the hall.

He even has a tiny, glasses wearing sidekick. What the actual fuck?

... _Manjoume Thunder_ has a nice ring to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	8. “The Power of Friendship!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Favorite dynamic duo, two characters you think would have been friends if only they met, how friendship saves the day, or maybe a friendship fail. It’s up to you!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERE. Have some super self indulgent hot springs shenanigans feat. my favorite trio! =D

“This is amazing...” Jesse groans, rolling his head against the rocks as he sinks into the indulgently warm water. It’s a bone deep warmth, chasing away any stress or aches and rendering his mind blissfully numb.

“Never been to one?”

It takes a moment to process Jaden’s words. “Don’t have ‘em back home,” he mumbles, shaking the pleasant fog out of his head just enough to formulate the sentence. “Wish we did. Feels like heaven.” He sinks a little further, practically boneless mush, before a nagging little thought drags him out of the bliss. “Å, where’s Chris? There aren’t dividers for privacy.” He rolls his head toward his companion.

“She’s around here somewhere,” Jaden says, eyes still closed as he leans against the rocks, completely unconcerned. Well, the two had spoken like they come here often so Jesse probably shouldn’t worry about it.

A sharp trill followed by a splash catches his attention. Not far away, Ruby paddles through the water, ripples parting around her. “What?” Jesse sits up abruptly.

“Oh, yeah.” Jaden snickers as Jesse stares at the contradiction to everything he knows about duel spirits. “Out here duel spirits can interact with nature more than usual. Chris said it’s something about the high concentration of natural energy.”

“Å?” There are too many question from that sentence alone for Jesse to pretend it makes sense.

“Oh, well, I guess it’s the reason Christina can see duel spirits?” Jaden says thoughtfully. “She can see a lot of things most people can’t, some things even we can’t.” A hand motions between himself and Jesse. “She can see a person’s-- what’s it called...? Not soul.” Voice dropping, he mutters to himself as he bites a thumb nail. “Energy of the body?”

“Aura!” Dark Magician Girl pops up without warning, and only having seven of his own spirits that like to pop up unannounced keeps Jesse from startling too badly. “She can see a person’s aura,” Dark Magician Girl continues eagerly. “And she’s pretty in tune with the flow of natural energy through the world; it’s why she can always spot the bad guy!”

“Aura?” The term sounds vaguely familiar. “Like a person’s soul?”

Dark Magician Girl shakes her head. “No, she can’t see your actual soul, it’s more like the light given off by your soul.”

Jesse blinks. Was that supposed to make sense?

Humming, Dark Magician Girl pressed a finger to her lips in thought. “Think of it this way,” she finally says, pintling to the sky. “You can’t look at the sun directly but you can still see the light it produces.”

“Å.” Still not sure how that relates to aura and soul light.

“Yeah, I never really understood it either.” Jaden offers a sympathetic grin.

Dark Magician Girl visually pouts before snapping her fingers with an, “Aha! Those lamp thingies you humans use for light! You put a lampshade over the bulb so you can’t see the bulb anymore, but you can still see its light! It’s like that!”

“So the bulb would be a person’s soul and the...” Oh, frick. How does he say this in Japanese?

Undeterred, Dark Magician Girl nods proudly. “Your actual soul is obscured by your physical body but we can still ‘see’ its essence - that is aura.”

Okay, that makes enough sense that Jesse can understand. He gets the feeling that it isn’t as simple as ‘seeing light around a person’, but he can probably ask Christina for more detail about it later.

“She can always tell what kind of mood you’re in too. I swear it’s almost like she can read your mind sometimes!” Jaden laughs.

“I can’t read your mind.” Jesse jerks to the sound of Christina’s voice, heat rising to his cheeks. The young woman stands waist deep in the water, her hair twisted up into a pile atop her head and one arm crossed over her chest to obscure it from view. Should he be looking right now? The polite thing would be to look away, right? She’s got some nice curves hidden under the baggy uniform... “I’ve just gotten really good at guessing what’s going on in there.” Christina pokes Jaden in the forehead, then sinks into the steam and frothy water on his other side and lets her arm fall away.

“Oh, hey! You did decide to join us!” Jaden beams as if there’s nothing remotely out of place with the situation. Is he that dense, or is Jesse missing a vital piece of information here? “Took ya a few months to be okay around Syrus, and you still haven’t come out around Hassleberry.”

The water ripples as Christina shrugs. “Hassleberry’s harder to read. I think it’s that fossil in his leg. Alters the aura. And Mana abandoned me so...” She stretches her arms, cracking her knuckles before settling against the rocks.

“Mana?” Jesse repeats with confusion, deciding that’s the safest option of the numerous questions he now has. _Who_ has a fossil in their _what_?

“Me!” Dark Magician Girl giggles. “Like the royal magician of Pharaoh Set’s court!” she bounces in the air.

“It was easier than always calling her Dark Magician Girl.”

That makes about as much sense as it can, so Jesse nods and lets the lull of the toasty water claim him again. ‘Mana’ has wandered off when he looks up again, and Jaden leans comfortably against Christina’s shoulder.

“So I’ve been wonderin’...”

“No,” Christina answers immediately without even looking at Jesse, while Jaden turns a curious glance. In the confused silence that follows, she turns to look at him, the side of her chin bumping against the top of Jaden’s head. “Syrus asked the same thing first year. No, we’re not.” Which is not a terribly compelling argument when the side of her face is leaning against the top of his head, but at least she looked him in the eyes this time.

“Mm.” Jaden shifts against Christina’s shoulder, settling into a more comfortable position. “Geez, why do people keep thinking that?”

 _I dunno know, maybe cuz...that,_ Jesse thinks, slightly bewildered by the fact that Jaden finds absolutely nothing odd about his and Christina’s current position. Christina herself looks accustomed to the action, but Jaden appears downright oblivious. “You two seem pretty comfortable with each other,” Jesse says aloud.

“Well, yeah. We’ve known each other for years,” Jaden grins. “We used to take baths together when we were little, and kinda just kept washing each other’s backs ever since.”

The amused snort Christina gives in response tells Jesse there’s definitely a story behind that one. “And your parents were okay with that?”

“They were never home much,” Jaden shrugs and glances off as if in complete disinterest of the topic, but Jesse can see a story there too.

“And it never got _awkward_?”

Jaden blinks up at him with the absolute most sincere look of confusion Jesse has ever seen on a human being. “No?”

“Jay’s asexual,” Christina sighs as she tips her head back and sinks further into the water. Jaden emits a displeased noise at the shift of his pillow but sits up rather than try to adjust.

“Ah.” That explains a lot, actually. And now is probably a bad time to admit that he doesn’t actually have a preference. He can hear the Crystal Beasts snickering from the changing room. _Y’all can just be quiet._

“Probably biromantic though,” Christina adds and Jaden twists to frown at her.

“Bi-what?”

“Romantic. You like to cuddle, Jay, and you don’t really give a crap if that person is a guy or girl.”

This gives Jaden pause. “Nah, so long as they’re comfortable,” he admits but just as quickly turns to frown at her again, “But I still don’t want to _kiss_ them or anything.”

Jesse snickers as Christina shrugs. “What about you?” he asks with a glance to the redhead.

“Straight--” Christina begins as Jaden interrupts with a sly grin, “She likes bishounen.”

“Jaden!” the redhead snaps, water sloshing around her shoulders as she jerks to sit up straight.

“What? You say you’re straight but all the guys you’ve ever liked have been really girly,” Jaden jibes with a teasing grin.

“Bi...shonen?” Jesse repeats the unfamiliar phrase. What kind of boys?

“Girly boys,” Jaden deadpans.

“Pretty boys!”

“Same difference. I bet you even think Lex is pretty,“ Jaden taunts with a waggle of his eyebrows.

“Of course I think she’s pretty! You'd have to be _blind_ not to!” Christina snaps with a pointed glare.

Jaden shrugs, nonpulsed. “Objectively, sure she’s pretty. Still doesn’t mean I’m interested.”

“Says the guy who agreed to be her fiance.”

“Hold on- what?!” Jesse sputters, jerking upright. Did he hear that correctly?!

“Christinaaa! I thought we agreed not to talk about that!”

“What??” Jesse gapes.

Jaden whines, giving his best impersonation of a kicked puppy but Christina has a Cheshire grin plastered across her face. “First year, there was this guy, a second or third year, who was hard core hitting on and harassing Lex. He sees Jay and Lex interacting, gets _suuuper_ jealous, and challenges Jaden to a duel to be Lexi’s fiance. Jaden agrees, no questions asked.”

Jaden groans loudly, face pressed so hard against Christina’s shoulder Jesse wonders how he can even breathe. “It doesn’t count! I didn’t even know what it meant!” His protests fall on uncaring ears as Christina continues to grin wickedly, and he slumps in defeat. “And you’re never gonna let me forget it.”

Christina hums. “Of course I’m not gonna let such prime teasing material go to waste.”

A beat passes, then Jaden jerks back, shoulders rigged and voice tense. “Wait a minute, you don’t...?”

“Who said you were the only one I wouldn’t let forget?” Christina hums and Jaden wails. “Lexi never said no~o.”

Jaden shoves his face in Jesse’s shoulder. “Jesse! Save me! She’s evil!” he wails, and with Christina downright cackling, Jesse finds himself inclined to agree.

“Alright, newbie, what about you?” Christina asks when she finally recomposes herself.

“Me what?” Jesse croaks, still reeling over the revelation from the last few minutes of his life.

“Romantic preference.”

“Ah, I, ah, I don’t really have a preference,” Jesse admits, stumbling over the words as he drags his brain back to the present moment. “I’ve found I care more about someone’s personality than their gender or body type.”

An uncomfortable moment of silence passes. Jaden’s face is still pressed into Jesse’s skin. “Oh, that makes sense,” Christina says, quiet and thoughtful.

The tension drains with a breath of air. Jesse grins. “Re-evaluating a few things?”

Christina shrugs. “What is that called?”

“I don’t know? I don’t know if there is a word for that.” Much less how it would translate into Japanese. He might be able to passably keep up in a conversation but if actually being in Japan has taught Jesse anything, it’s that he’s basically still a beginner.

Christina huffs, obviously dissatisfied with this answer.

“Honestly, I don’t think ya really need a label for it, so long as _you_ understand it. Sure, it’s nice to have a simple way to explain it to others, but it’s not all that important.”

Christina stares at him and Jesse wonders if he said something weird again or screwed up his Japanese or maybe both. That is entirely possible. Then she huffs softly with a grin and Jaden snickers against Jesse’s shoulder. “I knew I liked you.” He twists around and tips his head back to look up at the blunette. “The simple minded must stick together!” He punches the air with a dripping fist before sagging against Jesse laughing.

Christina looks like she can’t decide whether to be amused or exasperated.

An odd chirping noise pulls their attention, and Jaden bolts upright. “Aqua Dolphin! Hey, Aqua Dolphin!” He sloshes away excitedly, leaving Jesse and Christina alone.

“Spazz.” Christina smirks, a fondness in her eyes.

A comfortable silence settles between them, and Jesse remembers he still has questions. Let’s start with something simple. “So you’ve been down here with the others before?”

“A few times, mostly with Syrus.” Christina shrugs. “I’m not as concerned with things like modesty once I get to know a person well enough.” 

“Oh.” Is that a Japanese thing or a her thing? Japan does have a lot of communal bath houses, but aren't most of them separated by gender? Japan does produce a fair chunk of...questionable content. Anime is weird. Red hair tilts in his vision and Jesse realizes he’s been silently pondering this long enough for Christina to give him a concerned look. “Ah, sorry, I’m just...tryin’ to figure out if I should be flattered or not? I mean, we haven’t exactly known each other very long.”

“Yeah, but… I don’t know.” Christina gazes across the hot spring with a distant look. “It feels like we’ve known each other longer.”

Oh-

Something large hits the water with a great splash and sends the resulting wave crashing over both their heads with startled exclamations. “Amber Mammoth...!” Jesse complains loudly but laughs as he shakes water from his now dripping bangs.

“Sorry, Jesse!” Mammoth apologies as he paddles off. Amethyst sniffs the water before sticking her nose in the air and trotting off. Emerald slips into the spring with a _plop_ , gliding smoothly in another direction.

“This water really does feel great.”

Christina’s shoulders shake with her own amusement as Ruby hops up on Jesse’s shoulder, nuzzles the side of his head, and Jesse has to marvel at the way he can actually feel her fur, not just a disembodied impression of touch. With an exasperated sigh, Christina stands and reaches up to undo her hair, and Jesse should really probably look away like _now_ but he finds his eyes stuck on the exposed skin.

“So much for keeping my hair dry,” the girl mumbles as red locks tumble freely down her back. Then, as if suddenly remembering her surroundings, she looks down at Jesse. Blue eyes meet green and this is the part where most girls in anime scream and hide right? Maybe slap the guy? Nope, she flashes him a sassy grin and places a hand on her hip as she pops it to the side and _freaking poses_ \--

“Like what you see?”

Jøss! Jesse tears his eyes away to stare at some very interesting rocks on the opposite side of the hot spring. Not a moment later, he hears the infuriating sound of mad giggles and a loud slosh of water. He nearly jumps out of his skin when he feels her hair against his arm. “You’re too cute,” she wheezes. “Ra if I could have gotten that kind of reaction out of Jaden...” she descends into giggles against his shoulder again.

“You are so not fair,” he grumbles, glaring at the rock and trying to will away the embarrassing heat in his cheeks.

“You know it.” He can _hear_ the sharpness of her grin as she reaches up to flick his nose.

These people are weird, Jesse decides, but if he had a problem with weird he wouldn’t be here at Duel Academy.

A loud wolf whistle breaks into the dwindling giggles and Christina stiffens even before Jaden’s loud proclamation, “Go for it, you two!”

“ _Jaden Yuki_!!” Christina bellows, leaping from the water as Jaden laughs and scrambles from his perch on the rock to run from his best friend’s wrath. “I’m going to strangle you!”

Jesse snickers. Yup, weird. But he kinda likes it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	9. “Born to be Bad”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inherently evil, brainwashed, misguided, or misunderstood. GX boots a colorful cast of villainy. Who’s your favorite bad guy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ookay. So this prompt almost didn’t happen because the internet went on the fritz. (I do all my writing on Google Docs cuz Microsoft is expensive and free word processors are kinda crappy.) Luckily it’s back and I should be back on track for tomorrow.
> 
> Without further ado, let’s dive into Judai and Yubel’s backstroy!
> 
> Headcanon: Yubel got sealed into stone by ancient mages while wandering around on Earth.

They cannot keep track of time, only that they can feel him, their darkness, return and expire over and over and over. And they can do nothing, trapped here like this, their body, their soul, their sight imprisoned by stone. How many centuries has it been? How many times could they have protected their darkness if only they were not trapped in this prison? They have lost count. Counting drove them mad.

“-Yubel…”

A voice. Daylight finally pierces through the stone as their eyes open. They squint, eyes burning. This place is so full of color, but it is not the outdoors like they thought. They stand in a building full of colorful shelves. A miniature sun hangs from the ceiling.

“Wow! You pulled a rare one!” 

They jump at the new voice, claws raised and prepared to fight. They will not go back to the stone! They will protect their darkness!

No spell or weapon is thrown at them. A man leans over a child’s shoulder.

That child--

“My Darkness!” At last! They reach out as their darkness jerks to look at them. How long has it been since they’ve been able to touch, able to hold him? Their hand passes right through his arm.

What? With watery vision, they look at their claws; through their scales, they can see the floor.

“-right there! The monster on the card!” Their darkness points at them with tiny finger, looking up to the man.

“Hahah, no, sorry, I don't see anything.”

No. No, no! What has become of their body?! Their darkness grips a piece of colored parchment in hand, their own image etched across its surface where traces of the magic that sealed them in stone still lingers.

They’ve traded one prison for another.

“My Darkness,” they choke, and he turns to face them once more. He’s so tiny, so vulnerable. How are they supposed to protect him in this useless incorporeal state? They will do it. They’ll find a way. Miracle or curse, something has brought them back to their darkness, and they will protect him however they can in penance for all the years lost. Ghostly wings wrap around their tiny darkness as large eyes full of wonder gaze up at them. He looks so much like back then, the first time. “I will protect you.” It’s a promise, like the promise he made to them so long ago.

Their darkness smiles, blinding beautiful, and Yubel cries.

* * *

“Why do you call me that?” their darkness asks, legs swinging as he sits in a chair far too large for his tiny body, colorful parchment - cards, these are called cards - spread out on the table before him. There are other ghostly visages whose faces appear on the cards; Yubel bares their fangs and the others stay away from them, but their darkness urges them to ‘play nice’. Ghostly claws comb through his hair and the message remains clear: _he is MINE._

“Do you not remember?” Yubel tilts their head. The others are not bothering the two of them today; they have their darkness to themself.

Their darkness mirrors the action, frowning. “What am I supposed to remember?”

What...?

No. How can this be? Their darkness has always remembered them. How long has it been? What happened while they were imprisoned? The magic here is so thin, almost nonexistent. When Yubel had last been free, the magic still flowed rich and thick. Now it feels like a dry well with only drops remaining. The seal that binds them to their image on cardstock is pitifully weak, and yet Yubel does not have the resources to break it. They cannot even take their full form. Or perhaps their body remains trapped in stone while their soul is here? They cannot tell.

Their darkness still stares at them, head cocked and waiting as patiently as his tiny, fidgety body can manage. There are too many ways to answer that question. Where does Yubel even begin? Just trying to think about putting all of it into words _hurts_. “What shall I call you?” they hear themself ask.

Their darkness perks. “My name is Judai so call me that.”

“...Judai.” How many names have they called their darkness? They’ve forgotten. There have been so many. But this name feels right in their mouth, like it belongs there. “Judai. My Judai.”

“My Yubel.” Judai laughs, and they feel such a surge of pride and love well up within them.

Memories or not, this will never change.

* * *

Everyone that dares hurt their Judai, everyone that dares come between them is punished. Yubel may not have their body, but their power still remains. They can sink their claws into an adversary’s mind and rip it asunder, rendering it broken and useless. They do not understand why their Judai screams and shakes - _They were trying to hurt you. It’s better this way._

“It’s you, isn’t it?”

Yubel tilts their head as their Judai stops in the middle of the sidewalk. The hospital looms behind them and Yubel still doesn’t understand why their Judai insists on coming here, why those people that tried to hurt him and separate them deserve so much of their Judai’s thoughts.

“You’re the one who’s doing this.”

Yubel doesn’t need him to elaborate. His thoughts are full of the people that lie in hospital beds behind them. Why? Why, why, why? _Why do you waste so much love on them? Didn’t you promise me?_

“To protect you.”

Their Judai’s thoughts take a sharp turn as he spins toward them. “I don’t want you to protect me anymore!”

Yubel reels back at the outbursts, at the _pain anger hate_ in their Judai’s eyes. “They hurt you-”

“We were playing a _game_!”

“They tried to separate us-”

“Stop it! Just stop it!” There are tears in their Judai’s eyes. Yubel doesn’t - can’t - understand. “No one talks to me anymore. They all stare at me like I’m some kind of monster. You won’t even let the duel spirits near me! Do you know how lonely it is?!”

Their anger flares. How dare their Judai talk about loneliness?! _They_ were the one alone for centuries, trapped in stone! They are together now! Their Judai should have no need for such sentiments! “Everything I have ever done was for you!” Yubel roars.

“GO AWAY!” Judai screams, turns on his heel, and runs.

* * *

They bury themself far deep into whatever space they exist when not watching over their darkness. Maybe it’s the stone, maybe it’s the card, they don’t know and they don’t care.

_Why? Why, why, whywhyWHY?_

“I’m sorry...” A tiny sniffling voice. “I didn’t mean it.”

* * *

When they finally peer out of the oblivion again, their Judai sits at his desk, swinging his legs, as colorful sticks fly across a blank page. Other colorful images adorn the desk already, and Yubel recognizes the faces.

_He does remember!_

No, not yet, not quite. Their Judai does not realize the significance of the images under his fingers. But the memories are there somewhere. Yubel digs.

Their Judai curls over the desk with a gasp and Yubel jerks back. No. They cannot risk hurting him. If the memories truly still exist, their Judai will find them eventually. Yubel can wait. They’ve waited this long.

They would wait an eternity more.

* * *

Willful ignorance led them here. They turned a blind eye to their Judai’s thoughts, telling themself they were giving him the space he asked for. They should have known, they should have paid attention!

“Why are you doing this to me?!” Yubel screams as strange hands carry them farther away from their Judai.

“Be safe,” Judai whispers.

They scream and thrash against the magic that binds them to this pitiful scrap of paper, but they are powerless as they are carried further and further from their Judai.

Then, it is dark and cold and they float alone.

Out here, magic flows freely. Out here, they can finally take their full form, but they still cannot shake the chains that bind them to their card.

They scream in rage and anguish. No one answers. They are alone.

Then, the burning light comes.

* * *

_J̴̧̭͚͛u̵̟̽d̶̬̦̲̂̐̎̆͂ą̶̗͔̬i̵̫̼̝̥̼̾͑ ̷̛̹̥̲̀w̵̗̽̈́̈́̏̍h̶̻͓̽́͒͝y̵̹̑̉ ̶̬̙̬͓̂̑͑͘͜w̶̹̮͌h̷͈͎͓͈̽̾ȳ̸̙͔̍ ̴̛͖̘̯͖̲̐̓̚d̴̨̏́̾̒ͅȉ̶͈̠̚͠d̴̯̼̫̕ ̷̢̙̜̱͒̋ỳ̶̬̀ŏ̴̹̦̬̌ȕ̵̡̖͉͙̬̑ ̵̻̥͚̹̻͂̄̉̕͝d̶̖̼̖̞̦õ̴͍̣͉̯̣̋ ̵̢̠̟̿͆̾̾͋ͅt̷̳̠̘̣̏̕͝͠h̵̡͍̰͓͙͛̋̓͠i̶̼̖̠̿ş̸͎̬̥͊̌ ̶̨͕̠͉͗t̸͚̪̖̥͐͐́ͅȍ̵̳͈̱̦̓ ̵͙̫̟̻̼̄͌͝m̸̛͉̊̎͘e̴̮̬̳̲̳͛͂͆ ̸̞̭̲̇̂̔̕͜ḭ̴̀t̸̺̔͊̕͠ ̵̳̎͆h̸̖̆̋̕u̸͂ͅr̸͖̄͗ẗ̴̼̪̖̘̘́̈́s̵͔̜̳̝͊̾ ̴͚̏͋͝i̶̱̮̤̔̅͑͜t̵̞͉̫͔͖̽̀ ̶̗͖̗̜͕̄ẖ̸̪̟̫͐̿̇̅u̸̧̱͎̎͛r̵̩̘̓͊̿͝͠ţ̷̗ş̸̖̩̬͆́͝ ̷̬̈́̎͆͛ͅh̷̙͇̟̃̚͝ë̸̛́͗̾̃͜l̸̜̲̂̋͑̎͜͠ͅͅp̴̞̪̟ ̷̼͕̈́̍̿͜m̸̤̤̞͚͑e̸͕͍͕͔̍ ̵̜̑́J̴̺̱͕͉̈͗̿ͅụ̶̢̹̬͑d̴̡̩̖̣̆̔̕a̴͚͉̍̎ī̵̤̬̳̞!̵̨̼̹͚̄͐_

Judai wakes screaming.

* * *

The boy stands shaking under his mother’s hands. The parents look like they haven’t gotten decent sleep in weeks; the boy looks like he’s forgotten what decent sleep is. According to the parents, they’ve tried all kinds of modern medicine, therapy, and hypnosis, and the boy’s night terrors have only gotten worse. They’ve come to him as a desperate last resort.

“Can you help him?”

Sartorius taps his deck, thoughtfully. “I can try.”

The parents are perhaps too eager to leave their child alone in his care. Sartorius isn’t much more than a child himself, but it’s hard to ignore the red flag. They are probably just tired, he tells himself, and less interference is better for his concentration.

“Are you gonna make me better?” the child mumbles, clinging to the hem of his jacket.

“I’m going to try,” Sartorius says with as much gentle warmth as he can muster. “I’m Sartorius. What’s your name?”

“Judai,” the boy’s voice is a broken whisper.

Sartorius nods. “Alright, Judai. Can you tell me about your nightmares?”

Judai flinches. “She’s in pain...”

“She who?” Sartorius asks, but Judai doesn’t answer. “We’re going to do a card reading first to help me identify the source of your nightmares and what to do about them. Do you understand?”

Judai squints at the deck of cards then shakes his head.

“Would you like me to explain as I go?”

Judai shakes his head again.

“Alright.” Picking up his tarot deck, he shuffles the cards and sets them on the table once he feels they are ready to answer the question at hand. Given his limited knowledge of the issue, a simple linear pattern will do best. He lays the cards out one by one - Ten of Pentacles, The Demon, Two of Cups in reverse, Two of Swords, and Five of Cups.

Aware of the eyes that watch him, Sartorius tries not to wince. The Ten of Pentacles tends to point towards an inheritance and financial security, but that hardly fits the tone of the rest of the cards. No, Sartorius already knows this ‘inheritance’ has nothing to do with material goods, for these cards are not how he predicts but a tool to focus his foresight.

The Demon is a troubling sight. An omen of caution and, in it’s ‘past’ placement, signifies a poor choice now bringing about misfortune.

At ‘present’, the Two of Cups has been placed - in reverse. What should have been the ultimate partnership of love and trust has been flipped on its head and thrown into disarray.

Immediately following sits the Two of Swords, demanding that a decision be made.

And lastly, the Five of Cups heralds the distant future.

The current predicament involves another party that Judai likely wronged in some way. _‘She’s in pain,’_ the boy said, and Sartorius is willing to believe that ‘she’ is the cause of the boy’s nightmares. Reaching for his deck again, he spreads the cards and carefully flips one over. The Queen of Swords stares up at him in reverse, and Sartorius makes his decision.

“Judai.” The boy’s eyes jerk from the cards and back up to Sartorius. “This next part may be a bit uncomfortable for you. May I touch your head?”

With wary eyes, Judai nods. Sartorius reaches out slowly, giving the boy ample time to move away if he wants. But Judai sits eerily still for a child his age, and Sartorius’ fingers make contact. Breathing in, he focuses. Foresight is not his only ability, though it is his strongest and most useful, and the only one he publicizes. It barely takes any concentration to feel another presence, another being, clawing at the edges of Judai’s mind and _screaming_. Sartorius nearly jerks back with a gasp.

Perhaps it’s not fair, making the decision for the child. But his parents asked Sartorius to rid Judai of the nightmares and Judai has not opposed the matter. His eyes linger on the cards spread across the table - the Queen of Swords in reverse, a trusted confidant turned madman; nothing good will come of the relationship Judai has with this being. So Sartorius reaches for another set of talismans and places his hands on Judai’s temples again. “I know how to help you.”

The eyes that stare back at him speak of countless disappointments and failures; Judai is too scared to hope, but he still closes his eyes when Sartorius asks him and lets himself be lulled into a hypnosis trance. Then Sartorius focuses his power once more, drawing the lines of a seal in his mind’s eyes as he murmurs the words to reinforce it.

The creature screams and thrashes, and Sartorius finds himself rushing over the pattern and words to prevent the seal from being broken before it’s even been finished.

“No!”

Judai’s eyes fly open just as the seal sets, tearful and glowing gold. His cry echoes the creature’s screams and, for one terrifying moment, Sartorius thinks it didn’t work. But the gold fades from the boy’s eyes and vacant brown blinks at the room before him. Judai shifts in his seat, looking around the room as if seeing if for the first time.

“Where...am I?”

“You’re in my office, Judai,” Sartorius says gently. The child’s eyes snap to him with wonder; the despondent fear from earlier has vanished. “Your parents brought you here so I could help you. Do you remember that?”

“I...” Judai stares, eyes foggy.

Oh dear.

The mind is fragile and memory fickle. The seal is patchy at best, sloppy at worst, and Sartorius sealed away far more than he intended. “It’s alright, Judai, I’ll call your parents.” Swallowing his unease, Sartorius stands. It’s for the best, he tells himself.

“He no longer remembers his nightmares,” he murmurs to the relieved parents as Judai yawns and sags against his father’s leg. “It would be best not to speak of them again.”

He tries not to feel sick as the pair spew their gratitude and offer his pay. The Five of Cups still worries him. It’s a dark omen of regret and misfortune. Perhaps it stems from the mistakes of The Demon leading to long lasting consequences.

Perhaps no matter what decision was made today, there will be consequences.


	10. Free Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tell us about yourself and your GX experience! Your favorites, why you like it, how you got into it. Or leave the day open to do whatever you want!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got my introduction on [tumblr](https://the-evil-authoress.tumblr.com/post/628820500524777472/gx-month-day-10-free-dayintroductions) if anyone's interested. ^_^
> 
> Set early season before the Shadow Riders arch.

“-aden!”

Jaden lurches awake, narrowly avoiding smaking his head on the bunk above him. His breath comes in short gasps. Christina hovers above him looking worried. And...what? Blinking, he raises a hand to his damp cheeks.

“Jaden?”

Winged Kuriboh coos next to his ear and Jaden reaches up automatically to bury his fingers in its fur, but he presses too hard and his hand goes straight through.

“I don’t remember,” he mumbles, and he doesn’t. Whatever he’d been dreaming about is completely gone from his mind. What the heck? He doesn’t even cry all that often! Scrubbing his eyes, he shakes his head and swings his legs over the side of the bunk. “I need to clear my head.”

“Wait, Jay-”

“Seriously, Chris, I’m okay. I don’t even remember it. I just want some fresh air.” He prays he sounds convincing enough, that his voice doesn’t crack, that she won’t ask questions or try to follow him because he really _really_ needs to be alone right now. His chest is tight, it’s hard to breathe, the room is _too small_ and he needs to be outside _right now_.

Thankfully, Christina lets him go without further argument. Tossing on his shoes and jacket, Jaden steps into the cold open air and breathes.

He lets his feet carry himself forward mindlessly, only stopping when he finds himself standing on the beach beneath the dorms. The waves lap gently against the sand, and Jaden finally feels the knot in his throat loosen. Winged Kuriboh still hovers close by. He reaches up again and this time is careful about how much pressure he applies, running his fingers over ghostly fur. It’s kinda like laying your palm on the surface of the water, only without the wetness. Kuriboh nuzzles against his neck.

“It’s so weird,” he mumbles, breathing in the salt and sea as he stares at the dark waves. “I don’t remember anything except that I was dreaming, and I was scared, and sad...”

He tries to dig for the memory of the dream, grasping at anything that remains, but any details are well and truly gone leaving him nothing but the impression of terror and pain.

Winged Kuriboh trills again. Even without words, it sounds like the duel spirit is trying to comfort him.

“Hey, if I start having a dream like that again can you wake me up? I don’t wanna bother the others.” Jaden nudges the creature, and Winged Kuriboh coos an affirmative and nuzzles his face. Jaden smiles. He doesn’t think he’ll be getting back to sleep tonight.

* * *

Yubel screams. The lights flicker, sparks dance, alarms blare, and the human jumps. They found him, they _found him_! Been able to reach out to him once more, and they had been _heard_! And then that connection was ripped away!

_My darkness! My Judai!_

The human swears as he forcibly shuts off the alarms. Yubel does not bother to listen.

THEY. FOUND. HIM.

Nothing will keep them apart this time. They will be reunited once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Christina hangs out in the Slifer Dorms b/c Crowler is jackass and Jaden is her bestie. Yes, they share the bottom bunk. It's platonic.
> 
> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	11. “Cyber Legacy”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No Yu-Gi-Oh! show is complete without a pair of brothers. Today’s stars are Sho Marufuji/Syrus Truesdale and Ryo Marufuji/Zane Truesdale!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eep! I angsted. Guess that's what I get for deciding to explore their backstory.
> 
> Headcanon(?): Syrus was subjected to the "why can't you be more like your brother?" treatment, and that plays a large roll in his anxiety and insecurities.
> 
> Headcanon: Zane lost most of his sense of self trying to live up to everyone's expectations (and eventually snaps in s2). Atticus makes him feel like a person.

Syrus thinks they had a good relationship once. He still remembers when he used to follow his big brother around with stars in his eyes. He idolized Zane and, back then, Zane still smiled.

He still doesn’t know what went wrong between them. Was it really that stupid misplay of _Power Bond_? No, Zane started growing distant even before that. Everything started going downhill after they both started school. Syrus remembers people calling Zane a ‘prodigy’ long before he knew what the word meant. Then those same people looked at Syrus with expectant eyes, and Syrus just wanted to run away and hide.

Zane was the perfect poster boy, good at everything he did, and Syrus was _‘Marufuji’s little brother’_ , scared and weak and bad at everything. Everyone expected him to be just like Zane, but he wasn’t; he was never good enough.

“You’re not your brother, silly boy,” their mother told him once. “You’re _you_ . So stop worrying about who you’re not and focus on who you _are_.”

Syrus tries. But the fact remains that he _is_ scared and weak and school tuition is expensive. Their father walked out before Syrus was old enough to remember him. He doesn’t know how well Zane remembers, but he knows Zane holds a grudge against the man; he found out the hard way. Their mother works constant overtime to put them both through school, and sometimes Syrus wonders if he shouldn’t just drop out already. He never tells his mother this.

Syrus loves dueling, but he knows he’s not good at it. He only signs up for Duel Academy because Zane scores a full ride scholarship and their mother convinces him she can cover the tuition for one of her children.

“Don’t let other people tell you what you can and can’t do. Follow your heart,” she tells.

Syrus tries.

But like everything else, he’s bad at this too.

When Jaden barrels into his life like the sun incarnate, Syrus finally finds something to believe in if not himself.

* * *

“How do you do it?”

Atticus looks up from his half finished assignment, sprawled out on his bed like usual. Zane doesn’t understand how he can work like that. Don’t his arms get cramped? “Gonna need you to be more specific.”

“Alexis. How do you...be her older brother?” Gods, it sounds stupid out loud but Zane doesn’t actually want to take it back. Atticus is the only person who can get past his defenses like this.

Atticus frowns. “I just am?” Because that answer is so helpful. Zane’s irritation must show on his face because Atticus pushes himself up and crosses his legs. “If you mean how we get along, well, sometimes we fight like cats and dogs but others we’re just kinda there for each other. Normal siblings stuff.”

None of that sounds normal to Zane.

This too much show on his face - really it’s sometimes terrifying how vulnerable he lets himself be around Atticus - because Atticus hums thoughtfully. “I guess it just boils down to compassion?”

Ah yes, that lovely word. Zane’s beginning to think he was born without that fundamental human quality. (Realistically, it was probably conditioned out of him by circumstance.)

“She’s my sister, so I wanna protect her and make sure she’s happy,” Atticus continues.

Zane thinks about that day he stopped Syrus from botching a duel by misplaying _Power Bond_ . He did do that because he wanted to protect Syrus, but the results had been less than favorable. Hell, he gave Syrus _Power Bond_ to begin with for basically the same reason. Zane hasn’t seen the boy try to play the card since.

“Compassion is a choice you know.” Zane startles at this new piece of insight. Atticus continues undeterred. “And sometimes it’s a hard choice to make.”

A long moment passes while Zane stares at his friend. “How...?”

Rocking back, Atticus stares at the ceiling with pensive hum. “It’s like...you look at someone and think ‘what would I want someone to do for me?’ and then you do that for them. It doesn’t always work, but the more you do that, the more you’ll learn how your needs and wants differ from those around you and be able to make adjustments.”

It sounds remarkably simple laid out like that, and Zane can finally see where the difficulty between him and Syrus lies. Ever since starting school and being labelled a prodigy and having expectation after expectation piled upon him, Zane only wanted _to be left alone_. So of course he distanced himself from Syrus. But what did Syrus want?

Zane doesn’t know.

“You look like you’ve figured it out.” Atticus grins, stretching his limbs before flopping back down into his previous position. “So I’ll let you ruminate on what to do about it while I tackle this English assignment from hell.”

“Atticus, you’re better at English than I am.”

“The rules are a nightmare! Nothing is sacred!”

Rolling his eyes, Zane decides maybe he can try his hand at this compassion thing, find out what Syrus wants and needs from him. It may be too late but... Ah, hell, this optimist fool is rubbing off on him.

* * *

Atticus disappears before the school year ends. When Zane returns home for summer break, he’s in no frame of mind to try mending a long burned bridge.

By the time Syrus shows up at Duel Academy, Zane is too jaded to believe their relationship anything more than a lost cause. He doesn’t want the kid there because he _cares_ , because he doesn’t want his little brother to suffer the pain of disappointment and failure. He’ll be damned if he knows how to convey any of this, and Alexis can’t read him nearly as well as Atticus could. She tries, and Zane appreciates that.

A better brother might try to help Syrus improve, but that ship has long sailed. At least he has Jaden to be the brother Zane never could.

Yeah. Syrus is better off without him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	12. “But What If We Had Bikes?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That’s right! It’s time for the GX crew to rev it up on their very own D-Wheels/Duel Runners!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in the space between GX and 5D's while Alexis is studying in America.
> 
> Yubel gets she/her pronouns because that's the only way I stay sane when I'm already using neutral to refer to her and Jaden's body.

“You want to what?” Christina stares at Jaden like he’s grown a second head.

“Turbo Duel!” Jaden repeats, bouncing on their toes in excitement. “They’re installing that new track at the Kaiba Dome so now’s a good time as ever! Zane’s already got himself his own Duel Runner and even Syrus said he tried it out!” He also said it was the most terrifying experience of his life but Jaden doesn’t need to repeat that part.

“Jay, the last time you tried to drive a motorcycle, you crashed into a wall,” Jesse says with the patience of a saint about to slap someone with a bible. Must’ve been a long week.

“Water under the bridge!” Jaden waves a hand flippantly, ignoring the spike of irritation from Yubel at the reminder. “Come ooon! Dueling! On bikes! You gotta admit that sounds fun!”

“No, it sounds like I’m going to break my neck,” Christina grumbles.

“The bikes have autopilot,” Jesse says almost automatically and immediately recoils as Jaden practically squeals.

“So you _are_ interested!”

“I- You don’t even have a license!”

Which is a fair enough point that Jaden doesn’t call him out on the deflection. “So I’ll get one.”

Neither of his friends are convinced, and neither is Yubel. Unfair! The two of them together could totally figure out how to drive a Duel Runner! Especially if it has autopilot!

* * *

“Come on, back me up here!” Jaden complains to Alexis over video chat at a ridiculous time in the morning but, eh, time differences, what can you do? “It’s not like I have shitty balance or anything, and I already know I can _survive_ crashing.”

Alexis laughs, the sound staticy over the speakers but still enough to send a flutter through their stomach. Yubel gives him a teasing nudge. “I can’t say one way or the other about your driving skills, but I think you’d have fun. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind trying Turbo Dueling but Duel Runners haven’t been implemented in America yet.”

Turbo Dueling is still pretty new over here too, and Jaden still remembers the backlash the first few announcements got. Safety concerns were all over the place. “Why don’t we learn together?”

“What?”

“Why don’t we learn together?” Jaden repeats, leg bouncing rapidly, and Yubel stifles her annoyance at the nervous tick. Constant movement tends to drive her batty, but Jaden can’t sit still for very long. At best, he’ll fall asleep; at worst, the effort to stay still will send him into an anxiety attack. All his problems at school finally make sense. “You’ll be coming home soon, right? So let’s do this together!”

Another laugh as Alexis smiles. “Alright. Together. That sounds like fun.”

“Sweet! It’s a date!” He winks at her and cherishes the light flush in her cheeks. Yubel makes an obnoxious kissy noise in the back of their head and Jaden prides himself on not wincing. _Seriously?_

“Alright, I should get going.” Alexis fusses with something off screen. “I can’t stay up too late tonight, and I still need to finish this draft of my thesis.”

“Alright. Catch ya later, Lexi.” With waves and goodbyes, the video call ends and Jaden glances around the tiny dark bedroom, too hyped for sleep. He can’t wait for Alexis to get back. They’ll probably need to get a bigger apartment though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	13. “And You Are...?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Got a favorite OC? Or one you’ve been hiding in the closet? Introduce them to the world today!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Introducing Chinatsu “Christina” Muto!
> 
> See some art and a few fun facts about her on my [tumblr](https://the-evil-authoress.tumblr.com/post/629199297929412608/gx-month-day-13-and-you-are-got-a)!

“Muto? Like Yugi Muto?”

“You must be an awesome duelist with a name like that!”

“Can you get me an autograph?!”

Words like these have followed her since she was young. But the first time she met the man in question, he wasn’t _Yugi Muto the King of Games_ ; he was just _cousin Yugi_.

“Oh ho! So you’re interested in Duel Monsters?” The old man - Grandpa Muto, her mother said - gives her a toothy grin from the other side of the glass counter while mom and Aunty Muto converse behind her. Chinatsu stands on her toes to look at the colorful cards, wondering which ones could help her finally beat Judai.

“Yeah!”

Grandpa Muto chuckles. “What type of cards do you like?”

“Spellcasters!” she answers without hesitation. “But not the ugly ones.”

The bell on the front door dings as Grandpa Muto chuckles again, and a voice announces, “I’m home! Oh, uh-”

“Yugi! Welcome back!” Aunty Muto greets. “Look who came to visit!”

Chinatsu doesn’t really pay attention to the grownup’s conversation, far more interested in the muffled chitter of the cards behind the glass, until the new man crouches down in the corner of her vision. She turns to look at him out of courtesy and then finds herself stuck looking at him, looking at things that can’t actually be seen and she can’t put into words, but she knows them anyway just by looking. 

“Hi there. I’m Yugi. What’s your name?” He’s younger than mom and aunty but he still looks like an adult to her six year old self.

“Chinatsu!” She thinks it funny, the look he gives her then; it’s not like her name is weird or uncommon. The spirit that hovers over Yugi’s shoulder doesn’t look like any duel monster she’s ever seen; he looks like he could be Yugi’s mirror image. Catching her gaze, the spirit tilts his head at her.

“You play Duel Monsters too?” The question pulls Chinatsu’s eyes away from the odd spirit.

“Yeah! Well, kinda.” She pouts. “My friend Judai is really into it so I wanted to play but he keeps beating me.”

Yugi doesn’t respond right away. The spirit behind him makes a breathy sound that could be a laugh. What’s so funny?

“I can teach you, if you want.”

“Really?!”

“Yup.” Yugi nods, and Chinatsu cheers.

“I’ll never lose to Judai again!”

“Hey, don’t get ahead of yourself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	14. “The Perfect Formula”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He duels with the power math and science! Today, show the world that you still remember Daichi/Bastion Misawa!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’M LATE! D8
> 
> Real life is catching up to me and I’m...fighting to stay motivated with this tbh. BUT! I’m not throwing in the towel! I might just be perpetually behind.
> 
> So! Enjoy some Bastion time to shine that could’ve been!

“Hey, Bastion!” Jaden knocks on the door to his friend’s room before reaching for the knob. “We heard you’ve been cooped up in here! We brought fish! Cooked it ourselves...”

The door is unlocked and the room empty. Bastion never leaves his door unlocked.

“What in tarnation?” Hassleberry gapes at the equations that line the walls.

“Must’ve been busy,” Syrus mumbles as he sets the tray of grilled fish on the open desk. At least the desk isn’t cluttered. Jaden would be really concerned if Bastions had left his room a mess.

“This is _normal_?”

“Relatively.” Jaden shrugs at Hassleberry’s confusion. “But...” He glances back at the open door.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Christina says, and Jaden winces.

“Don’t say that, _please_ don’t say that…!” Syrus whines, already shrinking into himself as if prepared to flee in terror at the first sign of danger. Can’t really blame the little guy; _‘I have a bad feeling’_ tends to lead to things like the Shadow Riders and the field trip from hell.

Footsteps pull their attention back to the door. “If you’re looking for Bastion, he went to challenge the Society of Light.”

“What?!”

“I told you not to say it!”

* * *

For a single moment, he considers throwing the duel.

A voice in his head nags at him - _if you win you won’t be able to join, you’ll never be recognized as one of them._

Does he...does he _want_ to be one of them?

He wants...

“Bastion!”

The doors to the arena burst open, and Bastion’s attention swings to his friends barreling through the entrance. Someone squeaks out a muffled “holy shit!” as the four jerk to halt.

What a sight he must be.

“You can do this!” Jaden’s hands slam against the edge of the platform and he looks Bastion directly in the eyes, yelling over the roar of Combat Scissor Beetle’s motor. “Don’t let those white bastards walk all over you!”

He activates his trap.

Chazz reels as his own attack sails straight back at him.

Bastion wins.

“Ye~es!” Jaden cheers and Bastion jumps as the Silfer throws his arms around him. A hug, Jaden is hugging him. “Thank the stars! You really had me worried there!”

“You were...worried about me?” They’ve all been so distant lately, Bastion thought they’d forgotten about him, or found him annoying, or a burden.

“Duh! You’re my friend!” Jaden looks him in the eye again and Bastion sees the same rock solid conviction that tipped his hand into activating Magic Cylinder.

Why...why hadn’t he wanted to?

“You hear me, Sartorius?!” Jaden yells up at the Society of Light’s leader, placing himself squarely in front of Bastion as Hassleberry, Syrus, and Christin flank him. “You aren’t getting any more of my friends! We’re going to beat you and get everyone you’ve taken back!”

Sartorius’ face twists into a terrifying sneer, but it’s gone in a blink and back to the same eerily calm smile as always. Bastion’s friends glare right back.

Across the field, Chazz stands and shakes his head, looking up like he can’t quite tell where he is. He startles as Sartorius calls his name and scrambles to follow the retreating figure. The rest of the Society follows.

With a sigh, Christina relaxes her stance. “Hope you’re proud of yourself, Jay. You just declared war.”

The resulting nervous giggles are answer enough.

Honestly, this guy...

“Hey, so, uh, you can totally hang out with us in the Slifer Dorms so you aren’t, you know, alone over in Yellow,” Jaden offers a sheepish smile as he rubs the back of his head, and Bastion finds himself returning the gesture despite himself.

“I think I’ll take you up on that.”

“Sweet! Come on, let’s go get your things!” Jaden charges for the door without waiting for a reply to the dismay of Syrus and Hassleberry.

Bastion hesitates, looking again to the other side of the arena where a few students in white still linger. None of them so much as glance at him. Maybe he came here to prove he was strong, maybe he was just looking for recognition. Either way, he won the duel and he doesn’t need the Society’s approval for the second thing.

“Jay, will pack your things for you if you take too long,” Christina calls from the doorway.

Bastion smiles. He has good friends.


	15. “Creation and Destruction”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gentle Darkness and the Light of Destruction. The eternal struggle. And also the Darkness that tried to drown the world. Huh. Feels a little unbalanced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still trying to catch up.
> 
> Hersha = Judai/Jaden’s past incarnation
> 
> Tre = Johan/Jesse’s past incarnation
> 
> More on them can be found [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16673233/chapters/39097948), and I’ll be doing something for them for Day 18 too.

_They say before the beginning, there was only Nuu, vast and deep and empty. A nothing. Becoming conscious of itself, Nuu sought to create something, a spark that lit the void and cast a shadow. And so Daen, the Primal Light, and Nahn, the Primal Darkness, were simultaneously born. Together they filled the void with shining stars and the vast night sky, but as the void was filled, Nuu, the nothing, could no longer exist. Dying, Nuu shed tears of regret that it would not be able to see the final fruits of its labor. Those tears scattered among the blooming stars and became the source of life._

_In the beginning, Daen and Nahn existed peacefully, watching curiously as life flourished. But then chaos grew within the hearts of mortals; greed, jealousy, anger, and pride swelled into conflict and soon petty fights became war._

_Daen saw this and could not understand. Mortals lived such short lives already - why waste it fighting? Why kill each other? They tried to stop the fighting themselves, but soon became overcome by the dept of mortal emotion. Consumed by chaos, Dawn turned upon the Creation they and Nahn created, believing it to be an ugly, rotten thing. Tear it down and start over, they cried. There was nothing worth saving._

_Nahn rose up to oppose the twisted Daen and fight for Creation’s right to continue existing. They fought bitterly, Darkness against Light, day against night. Stars fell from the heavens, shadows blocked the sun and brightness lit up the night as Daen and Nahn warred across the cosmos. Daen lost their mind to the chaos._

_At the end, Nahn struck the final blow and Daen’s light shattered._

_Night fell upon Creation._

_The Never Ending Night when Creation feared Light was dead. When the sun finally shone once more, the people cheered, but not all was well. Broken but not dead, a piece of Daen crawled its way back into Creation, still mad with chaos and bent on obliterating life. It sought out the power hungry and built an army to carve a path of destruction._

_Horrified, Nahn once again rose to put a stop to the madness, easily thwarting the broken piece of their former partner. But now Nahn knew the battle wasn’t over, the battle would never be over, for Darkness cannot exist without Light. Daen was a twisted shell of their former self and would keep coming back as long as Nahn and Creation existed._

_So Nahn made a choice._

_They descended to the mortal world and told the people he would send them a piece of himself - a mortal with his power to live amongst them and fend off the twisted light when it inevitably returned._

_Then Nahn fell silent, and the people waited for their Gentle Darkness to be born._

Hersha jerks up in his seat with a strangled noise like he’s choking on his own spit, and startles Tre enough that the paper crumples and nearly rips beneath his fingers. “The _what_?” Harsha sputters.

“Uh...” Shifting uneasily in his seat, Tre smoothes the creases in the scroll and quickly backtracks over the words. How badly had he butchered the pronunciation for _that_ kind of reaction? “‘They descended to the mortal world and’-”

“No no.” Hersha cuts in, hand jerking awkwardly for a scroll before falling short. He’s shaking? A glance up reveals a complicated expression on the boy’s face. Tre wouldn’t call it fear exactly, but he doesn’t have another word for it in his - admittedly small - vocabulary. “Gentle Darkness.” Hersha sounds like he’s fighting to speak at this point and his next words are barely a whisper, “That’s _me_.”

“...What?”

“I am the Gentle Darkness,” Hersha says, pushing a hand through his hair and, yes, he is shaking. On any other day, Tre would be concerned. “That’s something I’ve just...known ever since I could remember.”

Tre stares at Hersha, stares at the text, stares at Hersha again, and feels his brain break just a tiny bit. “What?” he repeats, because what else is he supposed to say after being slammed with a boulder like that?!

Hersha doesn’t look like he’s listening. Hersha isn’t even looking at Tre because his eyes snap to the window with a harsh expletive. “Is that why...”

Tre yelps as Hersha darts out the door without finishing his sentence. What in the actual-

“‘Is that why’ what?!”

* * *

Hersha taps his finger on the table as he stares at the open scroll. The candle is burning low but the words on the page are just as clear as if the room were still lit by sunlight. The “Battle for Creation” is detailed in depth; how Light went insane and Darkness stopped them. But...

“That’s not how it happened.”

“Do you remember something?” Yubel tilts his head curiously from his vigil in the corner of the room.

“No.” Hersha tries to keep the bitterness out of his voice, renewed anger that he wasn’t consulted, that neither Yubel or his father thought he might want a say in a decision that concerned him, that they both kept in the dark. Ha! The irony of that isn’t even funny. “I just _know_. That isn’t what happened.”

Yubel doesn’t respond.

Pushing the scroll away, Hersha slumps in his seat. His mind is a tangled mess of things he only half understands. If he is Darkness incarnate, he doesn’t remember anything. But he knows himself well enough.

Light didn’t give up on Creation.

Darkness did.

Light shattered protecting it.

But then how did the Light of Destruction come into being? Why does he exist at all as he does now if he was once the one who tried to end everything?

Honestly, the answers to those questions scare him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify: Hersha IS Darkness (no ‘son of’ business going on here), but a single mortal can’t hope to contain that vastness of a consciousness. The rest of Darkness sulked off to parts unknown cuz he be a petty jerk like that.
> 
> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	16. “Putting the D in Destiny”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pro duelist by day and crime fighting vigilante by night. Today is Edo/Aster Phoenix’s day!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short this time cuz I realized I’d need to rewatch episodes to write anything more in depth and I’m behind and don’t have time for that.
> 
> Also I have believed Aster was 14 for like a decade now, I don’t remember where I got that info and I can’t find an easily accessible source that agrees with me. BUT I SWEAR TO YOU HE WAS 14.

Aster is only four when a burglar kills his dad. He still remembers the way his dad would smile as he’d talk about Heros and how justice would always win.

But justice doesn’t win. Not this time.

There’s no justice as he stands by a grave. There’s no justice when he’s placed into a foster home. There’s no justice when Kyle Jables “The D” adopts him.

Aster waits, and watches. So many crimes on the news go unsolved, so many criminals that still walk free, and his dad’s murderer walks among them. 

“You’ll find him,” Sartorius says, a simple statement of fact like saying ‘the sky is blue’.

“When?” Aster presses, seeking solstice in the solid warmth of his friend’s broader back against his own.

But Sartorius only shakes his head like all the times they’ve had this conversation before. “The future isn’t a single line, Aster, it branches off into many routes like a tree. A single action can affect which route will become reality.”

“But your predictions _always_ come true.”

“Often I can see the most likely route. I can’t this time. I’m sorry.”

Aster gets tired of waiting.

There is no justice here. The legal system is a joke. So Aster dons a mask and takes to the streets. Maybe it’s unlikely that petty thieves and thugs will turn out to be his dad’s murderer, but if this can get him even one step closer, Aster will become the justice he seeks.

_“You can’t hide from destiny.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	17. “In Another Life”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s AU day!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOOOOOOOO! MORE HERSHA AND TRE CONTENT!
> 
> (I love these boys.)
> 
> [Art](https://the-evil-authoress.tumblr.com/post/629664031663341568/gx-month-day-18-in-another-life-more-about-my) and fun facts on tumblr!

“Spells are a delicate balance between the internal energy of the body and the natural energy that surrounds you,” the mage with fire colored hair explains as she draws a simple diagram in the dirt between them.

Yubel nods, dual colored eyes watching with interest. They possess limited magical abilities themself, not so much as Hersha and certainly not anywhere near Zere’s capabilities, but it’s still best to understand the arcane in order to best utilize it.

“Depending on what you’re trying to do, you’ll need a different amount of both,” the mage continues. “Too much or too little of either and the entire thing will fall apart.”

“Fall apart?” Yubel repeats with a quizzical tilt of their head.

Zere taps the stick against the side of her face in thought. “Say you’re trying to levitate a rock: too much energy and you might make it explode; too little and it won’t move at all.”

Yubel nods. “And this balance between the two types of energy?”

“Natural energy fuels a spell, but internal energy gives it power.” She smacks a fist lightly against her palm to mime strength. “The strength of a spell depends solely on the strength of the caster and how much of their internal energy they can put into it. Most spells use an even blend of natural and internal energy, but some will require more of one than the other to work properly. A spell that makes plants grow...” she trails off and offers Yubel an encouraging nod to finish the statement themselves.

“Would require more natural energy,” the dragonoid supplies. That at least is fairly simply logic.

Zere hums in consent as she nods. “And spells that augment the body need more internal energy.”

“Like healing spells.”

“Mm, more like shapeshifting,” Zere frowns. “Healing spells are different, they actually require the use of your own internal energy as well as that of the person you’re healing. Which is what makes them so difficult since harnessing someone else’s internal energy can be dangerously stup--” The end of her sentence ends with a shrill as an explosion shakes the ground and very air around the two. Yubel leaps to their feet, wings sporadically flapping as they twist in the direction they last knew Hersha to be...coincidentally the same direction as the explosion. A plume of dust wafts into the air not even a kilometer away. Fighting back the rising panic, they leap towards the source, wings swiftly carrying them across the distance. Zere follows only a few paces behind.

At the bottom of a sizable crater, the two boys sit atop one another looking very much like they’d been unceremoniously dumped into their current positions.

“Eheh, whoops,” the brunette laughs awkwardly, entirely unapologetic. Beneath him, the blue haired man coughs dust from his lungs before breaking out into laughter.

“That was _awesome_!”

Well, at least they appear uninjured, Yubel sighs with relief as Hersha’s laughter soon joins Tre’s. Recollecting themself, Yubel prepares to reprimand the morons for their reckless behavior, when the dragon feels a sudden spike of magical energy to their left. Zere also stands at the edge of the crater, fingers stiffly coiled as her eye twitches; evident growing rage aimed directly at the two boys. Yubel’s immediate instinct is to _eliminate the threat_ , but quickly curbs the impulse to better assess the situation; Hersha has never approved of rash attacks when his safety was not truly in danger. Yubel doesn’t like taking chances, but they like upsetting Hersha even less. Forcing their attention away from the mage, they look back to the crater.

Oh.

“Ow! Ow ow ow ow ow!” The laughter immediately breaks off into pained yelps as Hersha attempts to remove himself from atop Tre and the only real way to do so causes a painful shift in the weight distribution. “Hersha, get off!”

“What do you think I’m trying- Ow! Don’t _kick_ me!”

The crater has _magic gone wrong_ written all over it and not two minutes ago Zere had been explaining how to avoid such instances. Yubel glances back to the mage and casually steps away. The boys are on their own.

“HERSHA SHATTEN! TRE ROSSHER!” Zere bellows and both boys immediately jump to attention. “WHAT THE _HELL_ DID YOU DO?!”

Yubel only chuckles and settles in to watch the fireworks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zere be Chinatsu's past incarnate.
> 
> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	18. “I Was Here Too!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> GX has a vast array of unique characters, some of which we only saw once. Pick a “one shot” character and show them off!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELP. Warning for minor character death.
> 
> Headcanon: ...too many to list.  
> Oo, actually, no, I got one. The Gentle Darkness has favored the color red throughout all their incarnations.
> 
> Credit where credit is due, I got the name ‘Rune’ from [Higuchimon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Higuchimon) and asked if I could use it too because I freaking love the name. As I’m sure you’ll be able tell, this is a vastly different character from the one they write. Also go check them out! They have amazing fics!

“Gather the prisoners!”

Rune didn’t think he could strain his muscles further, but when the shout rings out, he finds out he was wrong. All of his muscles freeze and lock in place, stretched taut with tension and screaming in agony, but unwilling to relax.

He’s trembling.

“Relax,” the man, Larz, whispers in his ear, a heavy hand on his shoulder and Rune flinches because everything hurts. Their captors - those _creatures_ \- work all of them from sun up to sun down with backbreaking labor, and Rune barely ever held anything heavier than book before being here.

Larz is probably the only reason he’s still alive. Rune still doesn’t understand why the man chose to stick with him when there are so many of his own comrades he should be looking after. But then again, Larz and his friends are all warriors. Everyone here is a warrior except for Rune. He still doesn’t understand how he got here. One minute he was walking peacefully alongside a wagon from the caravan; the next was utter chaos as the air itself split open and _monsters_ charged out. Rune was knocked unconscious and woke up here in a cell with the ugliest face he’s ever seen leering at him. He hasn’t seen any of the other caravan members since.

Rune met Larz shortly after, the older man startling at the sight of him enough to whisper, “It’s you.”

Whatever the hell _that_ means. At the time, Rune’s panic decided “where are we?” was a better question, and he still hasn’t gotten up the nerve to ask or tell Larz “I’m not who you think I am” simply because he _knows_ he’d be dead if not for the man’s support. Any guilt Rune might have felt about lying pales in comparison to his desire to survive.

So he tries to relax but his shoulders are bunched and stiff and he’s fairly certain he physically can’t relax them because he’s forgotten how.

Thankfully, he does still remember how to take measured breaths.

The shout came from one of the lower ranked guards; a chaotic scramble ensues as they argue over where the order came from, and Larz gently pushes Rune back and nods to an unattended wagon. They walk toward it as if to pick up the work where it was left, then duck behind it.

There’s a stranger in the camp, obscured head to toe by a plain cloak, and Rune swallows back bile at the sight of the person who’s come out to face the stranger.

Zure, Knight of Dark World, right hand of Mad King Brron - who Rune dearly prays he’ll never have the misfortune of meeting - and the same ugly, terrifying face Rune had woken to that first terrible day of imprisonment.

“This is our chance,” Larz murmurs and Rune jumps.

“Wh-what-” His voice cracks and Larz covers his mouth with a calloused hand even as Rune snaps his jaw shut. That was too loud. He can’t draw attention to himself. He can’t draw attention to himself. The last time he did-

A heavy hand on his shoulder draws him out of the spiral before it can begin.

“How fast can you run?” Larz asks.

For a moment, Rune doesn’t respond. The conversation between Zure and the stranger has grown louder and angrier - well, Zure’s side of it at least; Rune still can’t hear the stranger’s voice. “I don’t know,” he admits. His legs ache, everything aches, and he never built up much physical stamina as a scholar. But if it’s for his life, his freedom, then- “But I want to try.”

Larz meets his gaze, and Rune hopes his determination shows through the fear- because he’s scared, he’s scared out of his goddamn mind. He has been since he got here. But he wants to _live_. He wants to go back home where Njal is waiting and forget this ever happened, forget about his silly, childish idea to travel the world and find ‘the thing he’s been missing’. It all feels so stupid and childish and whimsical now compared to this hell, compared to the threat of losing his life.

No, no. This is _not_ the time to cry. Stop it, you traitorous tear ducts. _You can cry when you’re safe, in a warm bed, with Njal hugging you._

With a nod, Larz reaches out with a glowing hand and snaps the chains that cuff their wrists. Rune feels a tingle, like something is resonating inside him, then the glow fades and takes the feeling along with it.

Most of the guards are distracted now by Zure and the stranger, even the other prisoners don’t pay much attention to Larz and Rune weaving their way across the camp. The few that do, Rune recognizes as Larz’s warrior buddies and aid in keeping the guards distracted.

So much compassion from people he barely even _knows_ -

He sees Larz grab a sword in his peripheral. The gate is right in front of them now and Rune’s heart beats in his ears. They’re so close. They’re going to get out of here. He’s going to go home.

“Oi! Oi! Stop them!”

Rune forgets how to breathe.

Larz roars, yanking Rune forward by the wrist and breaking into a run. Rune stumbles before getting his feet under him. Red splashes in his vision as a goblin falls but Rune barely sees it, eyes focused solely on the vast expanse of desert in front of him. He just has to keep running. His legs burn, his chest aches, it’s hard to breathe-

Something grabs him from behind and Rune screams as he chokes on the collar of his shirt.

“Got you, filthy human!”

No. No! Where’s Larz?!

His eyes finally focus. The man stands several meters ahead.

_When did he let go?!_

Another goblin lunges and is quickly felled by the sword in Larz’s hand. Rune’s panic gives way to cold dread.

_They’ll kill him._

“Run.” The word is barely a whisper; Larz can’t have heard it. Rune still sees the despair in the man’s eyes before he turns and flees.

 _Good. Good. He’ll be safe. He doesn’t deserve this._ Not after the kindness he’d shown to a stranger, whoever he thought Rune was.

 _I don’t either,_ a smaller voice whispers in the back of Rune’s mind. He ignores it.

The goblins drag him back into camp. He doesn’t make it easy for them. He kicks and struggles but he’s never been a fighter - only held a sword once or twice while Njal gushed about his work, was always more interested in learning how the world works than throwing a punch. He gets maybe one good swing in and swears he feels something in his wrist crack.

He’s tossed to the dirt at Zure’s feet with soon to be bruises atop already abused muscles. A laugh grates against his ears as ugly, lipless teeth lean over to leer in his face. “Thought you could escape?”

Rune contemplates spitting in his face and decides, however slim his chances, he still doesn’t want to die today.

“Load him up with the others,” Zure orders when Rune doesn’t respond.

‘Others’? ‘Load’? Rune twists to look up and really wishes he hadn’t when he sees a misshapen mass of bone. A wagon, he realizes and feels sick. A wagon with people peering out between the white bars.

The edge of a cloak swishing into his vision. “ **Wait**.”

The ground beneath him flips on its axis and Rune retches as something wrenches inside him as if trying to pull him apart from the inside out. For a brief few seconds, his entire reality consists of pain, nausea, and dancing colors. The sensation fades slowly, leaving Rune gasping against the dirt. He chances a glance up at the stranger, and piercing orange eyes stare down at him from beneath the shadow of his hood. Rune swears the person smiles.

“ **Not that one. Leave him here.** ” The stranger’s voice vibrates with an odd resonance that sends a shiver down Rune’s spine. He isn’t human, no matter what his face looks like.

“You have something planned?” Zure asks, ire in his voice but it’s obvious the two aren’t arguing anymore. What’s going on? Where are they taking everyone? Why not him? Who is this guy and why does looking at him make Rune feel sick?

“ **Yes.** ” The stranger still stares at him with those orange eyes and it makes Rune’s skin crawl.

“Fine. I’ll listen.”

With a wave of Zure’s hand, Rune is wrenched to his feet by the hair and nearly expels the meager contents of his stomach. He’s too busy fighting the nausea to struggle as the fiend drags him back to a cell. Unceremoniously dumped and arm cuffed to the wall, Rune can only watch and listen as the other prisoners are loaded into bone wagons and rolled out of the camp.

He’s alone and abandoned and in pain and can’t do a damn thing about it. He tugs on the cuff once as nearly screams as his wrist throbs.

He was _so close_ to freedom.

Now is perfectly good time to cry.

* * *

Larz makes it back to the hideout in the mountain. Barely. Stumbling to the wooden door, he barely manages to rap out the secret code before collapsing to the stone beneath him. The door flies open as gentle hands pull him in. He can barely focus on the woman’s face.

“Larz,” a rough and worn voice gasps and Larz feels no end of relief to hear that voice.

Twins cries of “Father!” reach his ears next as Kyle and Gina rush him, and Larz’s eyes water.

“I made sure...I wasn’t followed,” Larz says, fighting for consciousness as he’s prompted to lie on a bed roll. He doesn’t protest as the women strip him of his rags to dress his wounds. His children hover nearby and, though he wishes they didn’t have to see him in such a state, he’s glad for their company.

He’s also glad for Freed’s company when the women deem it appropriate to let him join. “Larz, what news?” he asks softly, eyes haunted. Larz wonders if his own eyes look like that.

“Our men are being held in a prison camp to the north,” he murmurs to his friend.

“Was there a boy?” Larz jerks at the appearance of a strange face leaning eagerly over Freed’s shoulder. Freed turns an irate frown at the boy but nothing more, so he must not be a threat. “Blue hair. Strange clothes?” He plucks at the brightly colored garment he wears.

Larz’s breath sticks to his throat. The boy’s clothing is strange, far stranger than even Rune’s when he first came to the camp, and yet... “Y-yes. You know him?”

The boy hisses a word through his teeth that Larz doesn’t recognize and spins for the door.

“The candle still burns!” Freed snaps in the ensuing commotion as several other children in similarly brightly colored garments rush after the first boy. It takes Larz a moment of terror before he realizes the others are trying to stop the boy in red.

Red...? And if he knows Rune... No, it’s far too silly to hope for such a coincidence.

Scowling, Freed stands and Larz grips his arm before he can chase after the strange children. “Freed,” he rasps, consciousness slipping now that he’s safe. “ _He_ was there. Our King has returned.”

Freed inhales sharply, and Larz sees it, a tiny flicker of life and hope in his friend’s eyes. “I see,” he says, and pulls Larz’s hand off his arm to rest by his side. “Rest, Larz.”

There are still so many things to say - _I tried to save him but they caught us, he’s so weak and frail now, you have to get him out of there_ \- but the words fail him as Larz finally succumbs to exhaustion.

* * *

Rune is pretty sure his wrist is swollen. He doesn’t think it’s broken, it’s not discolored (yet) and it doesn’t hurt anymore than the rest of him. The bruises have set and he might as well be one giant lump of pain. He can’t even move without flinching. So he sits there, with his back against the hard stone, arm going numb and tingly as it hangs from the cuff above his head. His mind is foggy from pain but the same pain prevents him from slipping into the blissful dark of unconsciousness.

Basically, life sucks.

“Jesse!”

Rune pries his eyes open and risks looking up at the unfamiliar voice. The blurry shape of a person hovers over him.

Njal?!

“Jesse?”

No. No, that’s not... He looks different. Sounds different. What the hell is a ‘Jesse’?

Palpably excited, the boy chatters on in something distinctly foreign, neither the language from back home or the one spoken here that Rune had picked up in bits and pieces with Larz’s help.

“Who?” Rune manages to mumble and the boy trails off, excitement giving way to uncertainty. A girl with red hair lingers behind him, staring at Rune as if staring through him could answer her questions. Her eyes flicker over the space between them with a deepening frown. The boy looks back at her.

The girl’s hand moves and, despite the aches and pains, Rune jerks against his bonds and cowers against the wall as another monster appears from thin air. His voice shakes as he tries to warn them, but the boy chatters again, hands raised and waving. He doesn't look scared, and that terrifies Rune even more.

The monster looks like a woman - a barely dressed woman - and her mouth falls open at the sight of him. She shakes herself before Rune can decipher her expression and twirls the staff in her hand, saying something in that same foreign tongue.

Rune braces himself for more pain.

“Can you understand us now?”

What? He blinks up at the boy who looks like Njal. There’s a gentle warmth in his eyes, if disappointment. Rune’s eyes flick back to the woman, standing calmly behind the redhead girl, and nods.

“Okay,” the boy says, something in his voice changing. “We’re gonna get you out of here.”

Rune hisses as his injured wrist is freed from the cuff and steels himself as the boy pulls his arm over red draped shoulders and helps him stand. The bruises have not done his aching muscles any favors. Clenching the red fabric between his fingers, Rune rides out the urge to scream. The boy waits for his breath to even before prompting him forward.

They’ve barely taken a step when the girl spins around, air hissing through her teeth, and backs away from the entrance to the cell. “Jay, we got problems.”

The boy - Jay? - tenses beneath Rune, his grip tightening ever so slightly. “Problems?” he asks like he doesn’t actually want to know.

“This was a trap,” the woman says, keen eyes fixed calmly on the exit - their _only_ exit - as she flexes her fingers around her staff.

Rune’s breath hitches as the boy shifts again. He...was left as bait? For these two? Or just anyone unlucky enough to find him? No. He doesn’t want that. He didn’t want Larz to risk himself and he certainly doesn’t want a pair of complete strangers risking themselves for his sake. He’s about to voice as much when the boy reaches for the girl’s shoulder with the hand not keeping Rune on his feet.

“I’ll distract them. Get this guy out of here.”

The girl spins around. “Jaden--”

“I can handle this,” the boy says. “I won’t start a duel if I don’t have to; I’ll just stall long enough for you guys to get out.”

A duel...? A fight? He’s actually talking about _fighting_ those things? Rune’s breath stutters and the boy mistakes it for fear - well, it is fear, but not that kind of fear - because he murmurs a gentle, “Hey, it’s okay, you’re gonna be fine.” To the girl he says, “I still gotta find Jesse, so I can’t die here, right?”

So ‘Jesse’ is the name of a person who apparently looks like Rune? After the month he’s had, he’s just gonna roll with it.

The girl sighs - Rune can’t tell if it’s resignation or relief - and offers her arm. Again, Rune considers telling them to leave him and get out of here, but the four of them are already cornered and Rune still doesn’t want to die. So he grits his teeth as his weight is shifted from one person to another and doesn’t stop the boy from walking out to face what waits.

“What’s your name?”

Rune startles at her voice by his ear. She stares at him as if searching for something. “Rune.”

Her eyes flicker, but she smiles as she nods and repeats his names as if committing it to memory. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Christina. We’re gonna get you out of here.”

There are so many things he could say to that - _why, you don’t even know me, please don’t hurt yourself for my sake_ \- but he’s scared and he wants to go home. “Thank you.”

Voices filter in from outside as they slowly creep up to the edge of the cell and Rune shakes as he hears Zure’s voice. He tries his best to block it out, but he still catches snatches and the confirmation that he was in fact left as bait makes him feel sick. He holds his breath as Christina carefully pulls him from the cell but Zure faces away from them, and Christina begins to slowly lead him past the inattentive fiends towards the exit while Jaden chats it up with Zure like this is a regular Sunday night.

It would be admirable if it wasn’t terrifying.

Christina’s eyes are focused on the exit, but Rune’s are on Zure, so he sees the blade swing toward them, sees the lightning crack off it’s surface. He plants his feet, yanks his arm from her grasp, and shoves.

Then Rune’s entire existence is consumed by burning pain.

Someone screams. It might be him.

He never feels himself hit the dirt.

* * *

Everything is white when his eyes flutter open again. White and blistering pain and a voice without words- O-oh. He knows that voice.

_I found you._

The voice wraps around him and it’s warm and that should hurt but it doesn’t, it’s soothing and loving and urges him to rest. His eyes flutter as he sinks into the warm light.

Wait.

_Njal. He’s still waiting._

But the voice urges him to sleep and so he does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	19. Free Day 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Show some love for your favorite creators, or leave the day free for whatever you please!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shouts out to:
> 
> [EntameWitchLulu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EntameWitchLulu)
> 
> [SoulOfAFangirl684](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoulOfAFangirl684)
> 
> [tatersalad5001](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatersalad5001)
> 
> [Heleentje](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heleentje)
> 
> [Higuchimon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Higuchimon)
> 
> Check them out! They are amazing writers!

Jaden jerks awake to the eerie silence of his dorm room, the image of fiery death still vivid as his ears ring with the phantom death screams of his friends.

It wasn’t real. It was just a dream. He beat Nightshroud. They’re all safe.

His breath shudders in the dark as he repeats the mantra until he believes it, until he can breath without hyperventilating. Then he glances at the digital clock Syrus keeps on the desk and groans.

Sleep is almost becoming a foreign concept.

Rolling out his bunk, Jaden leans up and peers into the bunk above - _just to be sure_ \- and is stupidly relieved by the sight of Syrus bunched under his blankets. Without his pulse in his ears, Jaden can hear Chumley snoring.

 _See, they’re safe. Told you._ He sinks back into his own bunk.

Where’s Christina?!

His memory isn’t the greatest but it’s not _that_ bad so he’s pretty damn sure Christina was next him when he fell asleep. His eyes snap from the empty mattress beside him to the empty desk to the door. Going up to the roof or out for a walk in the middle of the night because he can’t sleep is a Jaden thing not a Christina thing. She’s more likely to sit up reading or fiddling with her PDA.

Okay. Okay. This is fine. He’ll just...go find her.

Stuffing his feet in his shoes, Jaden throws on his jacket and grabs his deck and duel disk without even thinking about it. Winged Kuriboh hovers over his shoulder as he opens the door. The landing outside the door is alarmingly empty.

_“Kurii!”_

“Docks, huh?” Jaden mumbles, feeling oddly numb as he descends the stairs. It’s not that far away but when Christina usually never wanders father than just outside the door...

 _Everything’s fine,_ Jaden tells himself, _nothing’s wrong,_ but he can’t stop his feet from breaking into a jog.

Light from the stars reflect off the water, lighting up its surface, and red hair flares like a pillar of fire in the night. The knot in Jaden’s chest loosens as he slows to a walk. “Christina, there you are--”

His friend turns and dread seises him once more; he can’t say what exactly, but something in the face, the eyes, something is _wrong_. He takes an involuntary step back and suddenly flames leap into existence, curling around himself and Christina, caging them in. An eerie light flickers in her blue eyes.

Firming his stance, Jaden narrows his eyes at the face before him. “Who are you?”

A cold, cruel smile twists across her lips. “You can simply call me The Flame. I’ve taken this girl as my vessel. You and she are rather... _close_.”

 _Shit_. How did this happen? Why? How much knowledge about him does this thing have? Can it, like, see into Christina’s memories? “Let her go,” Jaden growls with more force and bravado that he actually feels.

A laugh that vibrates like the crackle and pop of fire. “Perhaps. But only if you can defeat me.” She raises her arm with the duel disk attached, the central light glowing red as the device powers on.

Jaden curses again, gritting his teeth, and reaches for his own duel disk. Paranoia might have played a heavy role in why he brought it, but now he’s glad he did.

Christina’s spellcaster deck takes a fiery flare with cards like Fire Sorcerer and Hinotama dealing him burn damage nearly every turn. The Flame must have known what it as doing when it targeted Christina, because Christina knows Jaden’s deck and play style inside and out, and The Flame has a counter for ever move he makes.

The end of the duel finds him defenseless as Legendary Flame Lord descends on him in a pillar of fire. Jaden throws up his arms in a meager defense, the flames are cackling and oh gods he lost he failed Christina’s doomed he’s going to die they’re both going to die and it’s all his fault--

“Jaden!”

“Huh?” Jaden blinks up from the shield of his arms, worried blue eyes staring down at him. “What?” he croaks and slowly lowers his arms as he looks out at the dying flames, sputtering slowly out of existence not flaring to even greater life like he swears they were only a moment ago.

“You okay?” Christina asks quietly, the eerie light cast by the fire gone from her eyes.

Jaden’s hands meet the cool surface of the dock where he sits. He doesn’t remember sitting down and his tailbone aches. “A little bruised?” Jaden’s voice cracks with his confusion. What the hell? What happened to that doom and gloom death by fire he was promised?

A slow clap jolts him out of his thoughts and Jaden quickly twists to look behind him for the source.

“Good show,” Bastion praises as his hands lower back to his sides. “I wasn’t sure you could win.”

“ _Bastion_ ??” Jaden sputters and okay now he’s _really_ lost. He turns back to Christina sitting on her knees not even a foot away from him, a wry smile tugging at the edge of her lips as her eyes focus on Bastion above Jaden’s head.

Oh. Jaden lets out a short bark of a laugh as it clicks into place. “You _played_ me!” A wide, cynical grin splits open his face as he ducks his head forward to laugh. “Alright, you got me.” He lifts his head to meet Christina’s eyes and pulls his legs inward, leaning forward with hands on his ankles. “Now what the hell was with all the hocus-pocus?” Because while this elaborate scheme might be something _he_ would pull off just for the fun of it, Bastion doesn’t strike him as the prankster type and Jaden’s got this niggling feeling that Christina cooked it up for a _reason_.

Christina’s lips draw themselves into a small line. “You lost, right?”

“Yeah? Wait was all this just to one up me?!” The win-loss ratio between them had previously been tied and _wow_ that’s a lot of effort to go through for a silly competition and _really_ not Christina’s style so he seriously doubts it.

Blowing a raspberry, Christina continues as if ignoring the obviously dumb question. “And what happened when you lost?”

Jaden leans backwards a little, gaze cast upward in thought. What happened when he lost? Well he was expecting a rain of hellfire but that didn’t happen. “Nothing,” the thought strikes him and he murmurs aloud, looking back to Christina with mounting awe. “Nothing happened.”

And that was the _point_ . Jaden’s been thrust into so many life-or-death battles back to back, he’s been so terrified of _losing_ that he forgot how to have fun. He almost forgot that _Duel Monsters_ is still a game and not every duel will have life-or-death stakes. He can lose without Earth shattering consequences. He just did.

Christina stands, smiling as she holds out a hand. “Figured it out?”

Jaden finds himself smiling wide and elated and as he takes her hand and pulls himself to his feet. “Yeah. Thanks.” The word doesn’t do any justice to the gratitude he feels. He doesn’t know what he’d do without her, without any of them; they’re his reason to _live_ life instead of just coast through it. Turning to face Bastion, the edges of Jaden’s grin sharpen. “Now show me how you pulled off those pyrotechnics!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of these days I will write that full duel. Today is not that day.


	20. “Prehistoric Predators”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dino duelist with a fossil in his leg. Today is all about Kenzan Tyranno/Tyranno Hassleberry!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Saw someone complaining about that fossil in Hassleberry’s leg on Day 6, so of course my brain goes, “Let’s address that!”
> 
> This is still by no means realistic. My excuse is that magical BS runs rampant in GX.

He’s on his very first dig when he finds it. It’s not exactly the first time his parents have brought him along to their worksites, but it _is_ the first time he’s been allowed to run off unsupervised with his own toolkit. So this is _his_ very first dig.

And he finds something.

The team runs tests and concludes that it is in fact a dinosaur bone that has miraculously not yet been fossilized. It’s a dinosaur bone - a _bone_ , not rock, practically still fresh! What if this means dinosaurs aren’t so extinct?

His parent’s laugh at the ridiculousness, but the possibilities are there right in front of them and _Hassleberry_ found it! He bounces on his toes, already excited about receiving the credit. Only thirteen and making his debut in the field!

Riding the high, he rushes back out to see if he can find more. Where there’s one bone there’s bound to be more! What if he finds an entire fresh skeleton? That will be harder to brush off as an isolated occurrence.

Of course, that’s about when he caught in the landslide.

* * *

“That’s stupid and dangerous!”

“It’s our only option right now if we ever want him to walk on his own two legs again!”

* * *

Hassleberry wakes up in a hospital. Apparently he’s been in and out for several days now, and already been transferred twice, but Hassleberry has no memory of any of it. As far as he knows, this is the first time he’s been conscious. His leg had to go through reconstructive surgery, he’s told. That explains the cast.

“There were complications,” a thin lipped nurse tells his parents just outside the door. He probably wasn’t meant to overhear. “The bone was a bad match. His body tried to reject it as is still adjusting.”

“Will he be able to walk again?” his father asks, and terror seizes Hassleberry’s heart when the nurse hesitates.

“Time will tell.”

* * *

Honestly, when Hassleberry finds out the dinosaur bone he found is the new bone in his leg, he expected to feel more disappointed. He is - it was his very first find and now he’s unlikely to get credit for it; but it’s his very first find and now he doesn’t have to give it up. Now _he_ is the exhibit, he realizes with fervor. He has dinosaur DNA inside of him and how many people can claim that?

He’s their living legacy, and that realization brings him to tears.

* * *

The rehabilitation is excruciating, but Hassleberry powers his way through it one step at a time. The doctors continues to be astonished by how well his body adapts to the foreign DNA, and Hassleberry beams with pride.

“It’s their strength,” he says one day when he overhears his parents discussing the ‘miracle’. “Their strength lives on through me now. I’ll be tough enough to overcome anything now.”

His dad snorts his way to a laugh while his mother looks close to tears, good tears, Hassleberry can tell.

He’s always been a dino duelist, but now he’s truly a dino duelist.

“Everything except a meteor.” His dad grins cheekily and Hassleberry slugs him in the shoulder.

“Even a meteor! I’ll show you!”

* * *

It wasn’t a meteor, but Hassleberry’s pretty sure stopping a satellite death ray powered by evil light counts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	21. “Stop Blowing Holes In My Ship!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some ships are popular and some are...not. Today is all about rare pairs and crack ships! Give those underdogs some love!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn’t mean to get quite that far into _that_ headcanon but, eh, okay, let’s roll with it.

If pressed for an answer, she couldn’t really say when it happened, just that it did. Dark Magician Girl has always liked meeting new people, even if most of them can’t see her, and Chinatsu’s new friends are an interesting bunch. It’s not like she wasn’t paying attention before, but her interest peeks when she hears that Syrus has a ‘card crush’ on her.

She is an old and powerful spellcaster, nearly three thousand to be precise, and it’s been a long time since anyone has looked at her like that. Most steer clear because of her reputation, and the ones that get close only see her for her appearance and learn the hard way after that. Hm, that might be part of why everyone avoids her.

“So why do you like her?”

“W-well, I mean, s-she’s cute,” Syrus stammers, and Dark Magician Girl huffs. Of course.

“That’s it?”

Syrus flushes red as a tomato. “It’s silly,” he mumbles, looking away.

Well, good, at least he recognizes it, and yet… Dark Magician Girl stares long and hard at his face and just gets this _feeling_ that there’s more going on here. Her aura reading isn’t quite as sharp as Chinatsu’s and she certainly can’t see fate strings - or whatever they’re called these days - but she’s always had good intuition.

“Can’t be half as bad as Bastion,” Chinatsu says and Syrus groans. Even Dark Magician Girl grimaces at the reminder of that particular disaster.

“Well, I mean,” Syrus stammers again, takes a breath to steady himself and forges onward. “She’s supposed to be super powerful but all we really know is that she’s the Dark Magician’s apprentice. S-so I can’t help but wonder what she’s like, outside of being his apprentice.”

Oh. Oh, now that’s _something_.

Dark Magician Girl jumps up so fast she nearly sends a cup of pencils scattering across the desk. Syrus yelps and Chinatsu sends her a sharp look but Dark Magician Girl’s attention remains locked on Syrus.

_“He’s cute.”_

Chinatsu nearly chokes, hiding her face from Syrus as she hisses, “What?”

 _“He’s cute,”_ Dark Magician Girl repeats. _“I like him.”_

Chinatsu doesn’t laugh; it’s a close thing, but she reins the sound in before facing a still fidgeting Syrus.

“-know it’s really silly and-”

“Not at all.” Chinatsu cuts him off and Syrus’s face snaps up. “That’s a great reason to have a crush on someone. I think you two would get along.”

Flushing again, Syrus squeaks.

* * *

Knowing Syrus likes her is something of both a blessing and a curse, because now Dark Magician Girl wants to interact with him and can’t. She could ask Chinatsu for help, but that feels like cheating and so much less personal.

So she waits. And watches.

She gets her chance on Duel Monster Spirit Day when the barriers between realities are thinnest, when magic runs thick enough that she can pry herself body and soul from the stone for at least a few hours. 

Getting to duel Jaden is fun, but it’s not the real reason she’s here. It’s getting dark by the time she pulls herself away from the adoring crowd and finds him again; she doesn’t have much time left.

“Hi!” He startles as she greets him, sitting well away from the activities. That’s good. She wants this to be private. “You’re Syrus, right?”

“Uh, yeah!” Only a few months ago he would have stuttered. He’s come such a long way. “And you’re...” Trailing off, he stares at her with the same wonder and awe as when she’d dropped a hint back during the duel.

“Mana. My name is Mana.” ‘My name’ not ‘you can call me’ and he might be the first person she’s ever told outright; he also has no idea what that name signifies. Chinatsu doesn’t even know the irony of the ‘nickname’ she gave Dark Magician Girl.

“Mana.” Syrus tests the name on his tongue and she decides she really likes hearing it in his voice. “It’s really nice to meat you, but, um...” His eyes flicker behind her where festival lights ward off the approaching night.

“You’re the one I really wanted to meet today,” she says. “I heard you wanted to know more about me too.”

There it is again, that face full of awe and realization. “You’re really...” he whispers and doesn’t finish.

She doesn’t answer as she sits next to him, and they talk. For a blissful few minutes, she feels alive in every sense of the word.

Then she feels a tug.

“Oh, shoot, I’m almost out of-”

She’s yanked back into the stone. Her vision goes black. Then she blinks and she’s here again but only in spirit as Syrus looks frantically from side to side.

“Mana?”

Oh, damn it all. She should’ve been paying attention. “I didn’t want it to end like that,” she tells a boy that can no longer hear her. “I still wanted to...”

Syrus falls still, staring at the grass as he bites his lip. Pushing her frustration aside, Dark Magician Girl leans forward and kisses his cheek.

Syrus squeals, hand flying to his cheek.

He felt her.

Only those with strong attachments can feel the spirits, and Syrus felt her.

The tears brim and spill. “I wish I wasn’t still trapped.”

She doesn’t wish that she never agreed to it, because then she wouldn’t still be here, she’d have died a long time ago and never met Syrus.

 _“You don’t have to follow in my footsteps,”_ she remembers her mentor telling her.

_“I want to. I cast the spell, so I’m the only one who still remembers his name. I want to carry that legacy. I want to protect him for as long as I can.”_

She never once regretted it, not even after his soul was freed and she was still trapped. But now...

Now she sits inches away from a person that she feels for more strongly than she has for anyone in three millennia, and he can’t see or hear her.

But he can feel her. And she wishes for so much more.

She flits away before Chinatsu or Jaden can see her crying. This was a good day, a good memory, her own tears be damned. And next year, next year, she’ll have another chance and she won’t waste it showing off.

_“Wait for me.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	22. “And For Today’s Lesson...”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The teachers at Duel Academy have their work cut out for them, but they still take care of their students. Show the DA staff some love today!

One would think being dead would be easy and relaxing, finally free from the worries that plagued him while he was alive. Most days, however, Banner still finds himself chasing after unruly students that can no longer see him.

_“No, no. Get down from there. You’re going to hurt yourself-”_

Banner winces as the student in question topples off the rickety ladder to the amusement of his friends. _“I told you so, but you didn’t listen,”_ Banner says with his best impression of a long suffering sigh. Of course they didn’t listen. All of his students can’t even hear him anymore.

Well, all except one.

“Professor Banner?”

The ghost startles as the girl addresses him. _“O-oh! Good afternoon, Christina! Can I help you with anything?”_

“Nope. Just been awhile since I’ve seen you.”

Banner nods good naturedly. _“Yes, well, I try to get out as often as I can. Someone has to look after you ki-”_ A harrowing meow turns his words into a shriek, and his form flickers into a tiny glowing ball. _“Away you beast! I am not your lunch!”_

Christina scoops the cat into her arms before Pharaoh can make a jump for his vulnerable spirit, and Banner’s form settles into his full appearance once more. _“I appreciate that.”_

“If you just stay like this, he can’t swallow you,” Christina says with a frown. Not a mean frown, just a confused frown. He remembers her making that face a lot in his class. He has also seen her angry face up close and personal, and those are memories he’d rather not revisit.

_“Yes, well, it takes more focus than one would assume to retain this appearance.”_

His student nods absently, no doubt pondering the differences between ghosts and duel spirits. She’s a curious one.

They don’t get to say much more to each other as the Red Wonder comes barreling over with a call of her name. Pharaoh slips from her arms as Christina turns. For a moment, Jaden’s eyes flicker over Banner as if trying to focus, then he stares through the ghost once more.

Such a shame. Banner would really like to talk to the boy again. Christina has finally stopped glaring at his ghost any time she spots him wandering around, but he doubts she’s forgiven him enough to pass along a message.

Maybe one day.

Today he merely waves and watches his students run off and hopes to whatever gods exist they can stay out of trouble.

Oh, who is he kidding? This is Jaden Yuki he’s talking about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Headcanon: Jaden isn't able to actually see Banner's ghost until s4 when his powers have awoken.
> 
> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	23. “Legend of the Seven Gems”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Resurrect the greatest light in history today with Johan/Jesse Anderson and the Crystal Beasts!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Headcanon: Jesse was on the boat, Adrian was just a creeper so he avoided him.

“Å...” Jesse stares at the blank walls around him. He’s seen this intersection before, right? He swears he has. Or do they all just look the same? Dangit, this place is so big! Would it kill them to add a few signs? ‘Main area this way’, or something.

_“I could get a bird’s eye view for you!”_

“You can’t get a bird’s eye view from inside a building,” Jesse says automatically, careful to keep his voice down. The halls are deserted right now, but it’s better to keep up the habit. Most everyone at North Academy has stopped looking at him weird and just ignores it, but that doesn’t mean he wants to end up with the same _‘the guy who talks to himself’_ reputation here at Duel Academy.

Cobalt ruffles his feathers and glances around the hallways as if looking for a way to prove Jesse wrong. He doesn’t find one.

“I’m going to be late to my own welcome rally,” Jesse laments and glances down each hallway again just in case a sign has appeared in the last few seconds that will tell him where he is or where he needs to be. This is not how he hoped to make his first impression.

 _“It’s your own fault.”_ Amethyst sniffs.

“I know that.” Jesse doesn’t bother keeping his voice down this time. “I was excited and wanted to look around and stretch my legs on _solid ground_ \- why the hell did we take a boat?” 

_“Jesse, you’re rambling,”_ Amber says.

Taking a deep breath, Jesse forces his mind away from the hours of mind numbing boredom and back to more recent events. “And it felt like there was something I needed to find. So I looked.”

Emerald actually sounds cheeky as he says, _“And then you found that Jaden kid.”_

“Don’t start,” Jesse groans, rolling his eyes to the ceiling. He’s pretty damn sure their relentless teasing is half the reason he got lost in the first place. Seven voices talking at you can make concentrating on anything else damn near impossible some days. So maybe he had a weird moment of _‘oh hey I found you’_ when he and Jaden shook hands, and maybe he thought the red jacket was cape for a hot second. If they have met before, then Jesse sure as hell doesn’t remember it, and he’s not superstitious enough to subscribe to the idea of ‘preordained fate’.

Ruby trills from down one of the halls and Jesse follows the sound to a sort of open lounge area by a set of stairs. Seeing him, Ruby sits up on her haunches and scratches at the wall. A large rectangular placard hangs in the space above her.

“You found a map!” Beaming, Jesse jogs over to study it. Hoo boy, yeah this place is big and a maze of interlocking halls. Maybe he really should have stayed with the group instead of running off on his own. Shaking the thought aside, he places a finger on the map over the red indicator dot. “Okay, so I’m here.” He searches the map for the correct kanji, setting down the index finger of his other hand when he finds it. “And the main gathering hall is here. Hey, that’s not far from here!” 

Spinning on his heel, he sprints off down the hall. Maybe he’ll get lucky and still be on time!

 _“Jesse!”_ six voices chorus behind him along with a sharp trill, and he screeches to a halt and looks over his shoulder.

“Yeah?”

 _“This way.”_ Cobalt points a wing in the opposite direction.

A nervous laugh slips off his tongue as Jesse quickly corrects course. “Whoops. Thanks, y’all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	24. “For The Glory of Academia!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We got to see Asuka/Alexis and Edo/Aster over in Fusion Dimension, but what about the rest of the cast? Show us some Fusion counterparts today! What are these dorks up to and what part do they play in the war?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to post this yesterday! Got sidetracked by an unrelated project.
> 
> Zane would tots remember his other life before the OP dipshits went and broke reality.

“I can’t believe I’m hunting my own sister.”

He says it quietly. Atticus doesn’t use his usual volume or dramatic flare; he says it quietly, furiously, for only Zane’s ear to hear. So Zane doesn’t respond or look at him or give any other indication to the rest of their party that Atticus is speaking to him. Because he _could_ have said aloud, he could have said it angrily too, and no one but Zane would have been the wiser.

“What gives them the right to call her a traitor?” Atticus hisses, still furious. “Why is it so wrong to not want to participate in a war?”

War. Genocide. Because that’s what this is no matter how many pretty words Academia spouts about creating a utopia. The sickening thing? There are people who’ve been on the front lines that still believe that farce.

 _‘If you’re not with us, you’re against us’_ as far as Academia is concerned, but Zane doesn’t need to tell Atticus that. The two of them only stuck around because they still have younger siblings to think about. Or had. Zane chances at glance at his friend and already sees the decision on his face.

“Go,” he says just as quietly, and Atticus tenses but doesn’t react further. “Go after her. Just you. Don’t come back.” From the corner of his eye, Zane sees his friend start to protest and cuts him off. “We’ll stage it. Give them a reason to think you aren’t coming back.”

He waits for it to click. Then a tiny, breathless little laugh. “Yeah. Okay.” Atticus eyes roam their surroundings with renewed focus, not looking for dissenters but anything that will help them put on a show.

They get lucky when they corner a resistance member away from prying eyes. The building comes down and only Zane walks out.

Academia buys it. Officially, Atticus dies in the line of duty.

Weeks later, a new resistance leader calling himself ‘Nightshroud’ makes a persistent nuisance of himself and Zane nearly chokes at the sight of Atticus in that damn mask.

They might need to have a conversation.

Where did he even _get_ that thing?

They do have a conversation, several in fact, because Zane starts feeding the resistance information. Between ‘Nightshroud’ on the front lines and Zane playing double agent behind the scenes, the resistance gains ground and rises from being a nuisance to an actual threat.

But good things don’t last. Good things have never lasted in either of Zane’s lives. Aster is a hard ass on a good day, and Zane’s never liked him on principle. He gives Zane the stink eye but never goes beyond that. Bastion is tolerable, but Bastion is also smart, so it was probably inevitable that he would eventually look at the communications logs and realize two plus two does not equal five.

“Zane, I don’t want to believe this,” - and Zane believes that much, Bastion has a horrible poker face - “but the evidence would suggest...perhaps someone is trying to frame you.”

A copout. Zane almost snorts. “You’re reading too much into this,” he says and walks away. Maybe he could have taken the copout and found someone else to take the fall. Maybe pride kept him from doing so. Maybe he was sick of this place and looking for a reason to make an explosive exit.

Bastion goes to Aster with his findings.

Zane makes a very explosive exit.

He only regrets not being able to take Syrus with him.

* * *

“WHAT?” Chazz sputters, nearly jerking straight off his chair. “Zane fucking Marufuji split on Academia?!”

Atticus grimaces. Word travels fast around here, and he’s not surprised Zane’s defection is talk of the town considering how flashy it was. Honestly, he’s more concerned how this will affect the resistance; they’ve been operating on Zane’s intel for months. Catching Alexis’ gaze, he sends her a grin, unsure how reassuring it actually comes across.

“Huh.” Chazz leans back in his seat, already recomposing from his outburst. “Guess we’ll be seeing him around here before long. Weird.”

“I doubt it.” Atticus rubs his thumb against the mask in his hands. If he knows Zane half as well as he thinks he does, Zane will steer clear of the resistance altogether and draw Academia’s attention away as well. He’ll be a ‘high priority target’ after all and, unlike Atticus, everyone knows he’s still alive.

_Just don’t die._

* * *

Syrus skirts down the hall, head down. He’s long used to the scornful looks and whispers that follow him as if they expect _‘Marufuji’s little brother’_ to turn tail just like Zane did. The worst part is that Syrus doesn’t even understand why Zane did it. One day Zane was spearholding the entire movement, and the next... The next Cyber End Dragon tore a hole through the south wing that took months to repair. Syrus was yanked off field duty training and reduced to a mere errand boy.

It’s not fair. He wanted the chance to prove himself. He wanted to help build the Professor’s utopia with his own hands. But Zane had to go and ruin that too. No one will ever see Syrus as anything more than _‘Marufuji’s little brother’_ and now he’s _‘the traitor’s brother’_ to top it off.

It’d be different if _he_ were here.

‘He’ who?

Syrus stops dead in his tracks, staring at the floor through wavering vision.

Someone...someone important. Someone who saw _Syrus_ not _‘Marufuji’s little brother’_ . Someone who believed in him and wouldn’t let him wallow in self pity.

_He isn’t here._

It hits him all at once, that realization, and Syrus breaks down crying over a person whose name he can’t even remember.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	25. “Dream Team From Overseas”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Austin O’Brien/Axel Brody, Jim “Crocodile” Cook, and Amon/Adrian Gecko. Today is all about them!

When all of the remaining Overseas Champions are called to Chancellor Shepard’s office, Jim reckons he ain’t gonna like what’s coming. In fact, he’s already got a niggling feeling what this is about, so he’s unsurprised to see his own headmaster’s face on the display screen. Disappointed, but unsurprised.

The other schools have every right to demand the return of their students. The entire school disappeared and, as soon as it got back, several students including the transfers disappeared _again_ for two months, and one of them didn’t come back. East Academy’s headmaster certainly has opinions about that.

Shepard’s a nice guy, for how little Jim knows him, but there’s no amount of saving face that will change the other headmasters’ minds. Jim certainly doesn’t want to go out like this, but he reckons there ain’t much choice. Axel looks much the same, accepting his fate with grim scowl that’s a touch deeper than his resting scowl. Three months ago, Jim wouldn’t have known the difference. And Jesse...

Jesse looks ready to claw someone’s eye out.

“Chancellor, if I may.” It’s not a question.

They’ve been back four days now and the dark splotches under Jesse’s eyes have only gotten deeper. Jaden is still missing along with Jesse’s deck. Oof. This must be a slap in face for the poor guy. Glancing over, Axel does a double take, and Jim doesn’t blame him. He’d have expected Jesse to be crestfallen, maybe devastated. When Shepard nods, the thin façade of calm cracks and Jesse is downright _livid_.

“ _Faen ta deg!_ I’m not going back and that’s final!”

Jim’s ears ring as the other duelist spins on his heel and storms from the room. Crowler, ever the suckup, spews apologies into the stunned silence. To everyone’s astonishment, North Academy’s headmaster _laughs_ , wheezes like it’s the funniest joke he’s ever heard. Jim sends another look at Axel who shrugs, looking about as lost as Jim feels.

“Foster, you should be ashamed of yourself! This is hardly amusing!” West Academy’s headmistress, an elderly woman with stern face and glasses, glares from a corner of the screen.

“Sorry, sorry.” North Academy’s headmaster finally pulls himself together, but the wide grin never leaves his face. Jim still feels like he’s missed the joke, but the air feels less oppressive after the outburst. “Well, that settles it.” Shaking his head, the man raises his hands in a helpless gesture. “Once that boy makes up his mind, there’s no changing it. It’s as frustrating as it is endearing, but that determination allowed him to reach the top of our ranks.”

“Of all the ridiculous-” With a huff, West Academy’s headmistress’ eyes fall on Axel. “Mr. Brodie-”

“Sorry, but I’m with Jesse.” Axel doesn’t let her finish.

“Aye, same ’ere,” Jim wedges himself into the conversation before the woman has time to be properly affronted. “And I’m not sure whut the first thing he said wus but I reckon I agree with that too.”

Snorting, Foster visibly stops himself from descending into another giggle fit. “He told me to go to hell,” the man says far too cheerfully.

Oh. Well, whoops. Jim sends an apologetic glance at his own headmaster while Axel coughs in lieu of a laugh, but the man has his face in his hands. West Academy’s headmistress looks positively scandalized.

“If that’s all,” Axel says and pointedly shifts his weight toward the door.

“This conversation is not over.” West Academy’s headmistress gives Jesse’s will-claw-your-eyes-out scowl a run for its money. It looks far less threatening on her.

“Yes, it is.”

Axel turns for the door and Jim bows out after him with a tip of his hat. In the silence of the hall, the reality of the last few minutes of his life dawns on him and he chokes on a laugh. “We just told our principles to fuck off.”

Axel’s stoic expression cracks as he leans against the wall with a hand splayed over his face. “I don’t know if I want to hug Jesse or slap him.”

Jim laughs. “I’ll do the hugging if you do the slapping.”

“Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	26. “Duel Monster Spirit Day!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world of GX is full of spirits. Do something fun to celebrate your favorite!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here come the headcanons.
> 
> I shipped Pineshipping once upon a time...

They are the Temple Guardians, guarding this sacred land for generations upon generations. Once, they acted as guides for any who wished to enter the Trials. That was before the Great War. Now the temples sit abandoned and forgotten by the people. Only the Guardians remain.

‘Gravekeepers’, history calls them now, although there are no graves here but the few kings who wished to be buried near the gods. It’s strange, what history chooses to forget.

Yasmin knows the legacy she was born into; she’s memorized the secrets inscribed in the walls. To be a Temple Guardian is a lonely existence, but she bares it proudly. These secrets and legends exist for a reason. Once, their numbers were great, temples and guardians and acolytes spread across the lands. Now, they are few; Yasmin has watched people leave with her own eyes. Her temple is the only one she knows.

She will keep it alive.

Few people come to this place, and even fewer from the realms beyond. The Chief calls out an alarm when the barrier between is breached, and Yasmin manages to catch one of the intruders alone.

“Wait, wait!” the boy’s voice shoots up an octave, hands in the air as Yasmin holds a blade to his throat. His clothes and accent are strange but he can’t be older than Yasmin. “Please don’t hurt me! I don’t wanna hurt you! I don’t even know how I got here!”

She measures his words, stares deep into his dark eyes, and lowers the blade.

He sags with relief. “Okay, now that that’s cleared up... I’m Atticus. What’s your name?”

His name? He gave his name so readily to a stranger? “Yasmin,” she says automatically.

“Yasmin.” Something about the boy’s smile is...alluring. “Nice to meet you. My classmates and I seem to have gotten a little lost out here. Think you could help us?”

Everything about this boy is strange, from his manner of speech to his willingness to trust a stranger. “They’ve likely been apprehended by now.”

“Yeah, I was afraid of that.” He doesn’t look upset, just thoughtful, as if already planning his next move. This boy is hardly a threat, and there is no crime in getting lost. Yasmin cannot yet say the same of the others, especially since they arrived with _that man_.

And aside from all that, maybe it wasn’t random chance that brought Atticus here. “You’ve been touched by Darkness,” she says, and all of his muscles freeze before her as a choked noise lodges itself in his throat. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

He laughs it off weakly, and Yasmin can’t understand his terror.

“I might be able to help you. If you challenge the Chief and win, he may let your friends go free.”

“I’ll assume I don’t wanna know the results if I lose. What kind of challenge?”

“A game.”

Atticus proves to be unaccustomed to a game with real stakes. He is clever but outmatched in sheer terms of power, and Yasmin cannot aid him further. Backed into a corner, he grimaces.

“Goddamnit.”

A black mask appears in his hand.

He looks up again through the chilling blue of the eye pieces, and Yasmin can feel a change. Something cold and foreboding settles in her chest. Darkness is not a thing to be feared, she has known this since she was a little girl, and yet-

Something is _wrong_.

Atticus wins his friends’ freedom. Even the man who doesn’t age walks away with a smile that lies. The mask disappears but the foreboding feeling does not, and Atticus’ eyes are unfocused when they say their goodbyes.

“History may yet repeat itself,” Chief murmurs as the Temple Guardians watch their ‘guests’ leave. He says no more.

They are the watchers and keepers of history lost to time; it is not their place to meddle beyond what they’ve already done.

And yet, for the first time, Yasmin desperately wants to.

So, she decides to take a chance.

Running to catch up, she pressed half the medallion around her neck into his palm. “Be careful,” she urges. “That power you wield...”

“I know.” His smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “Hey, we match now!” He motions eagerly between the two halves, proudly wearing his piece, and Yasmin feels warmth swell up into the cold spot in her chest.

The artifact has long been broken and useless - just another keepsake, a memento of history - but if there’s even the slightest chance it can guide Atticus when he most needs it...

Yasmin will take that chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [...Maybe I should explain.](https://the-evil-authoress.tumblr.com/post/630395721621848065/quick-run-down-of-my-multi-yu-gi-oh-headcanon)
> 
> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	27. “Gold Eyes in The Darkness”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today’s all about the Supreme King! Unleash the Darkness and create your content!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for hardcore depressive spiral and manipulation. Tread cautiously.
> 
> Headcanon: The Supreme King carved a path of destruction once before before finally being stopped. The Dark Army has been waiting for his return ever since. Yubel takes full advantage of this.

After the battle, Jaden just _stops_. Jim would call it catatonic if he wasn’t still awake because Jaden shuts down completely. He’ll react to them but only barely, silent and still and staring blankly at the ground. He hasn’t even cried.

They turn their backs for all of five minutes just to recoup. When they return to camp, Jaden is gone.

* * *

They’re gone. They’ll all gone. Dead or have abandoned him. He thought this time... this time... at least someone...

It’s so very dark. And cold.

 ** _They abandoned you,_** a voice whispers. It sends a shiver through him. **_And they were right to. It’s your fault they’re dead._**

 _No._ He can’t even speak, his throat locks. _It wasn’t me. **He** killed them._ He reaches for the burning anger that carried him through the duel, and finds none.

He feels hollow.

 ** _They don’t want you._** The voice again. Should he recognize that voice? Is it his? He doesn’t know. **_They never wanted you. They only wanted a perfect little hero. But you’re not a hero, are you?_**

_-“How could you?!”-_

_-“I thought you cared!”-_

_-“You’re not the person I thought you were!”-_

His friends’ voices, angry and sad. They blamed him, they blamed _him_ for their deaths.

Maybe it was his fault.

**_You tried to be, you tried so hard, but the mask fell off and revealed the ugly truth. And once they saw it, they tossed you aside._ **

A choked sound. Was that him? His eyes are hot. His throat hurts.

**_They don’t want you. They can’t accept you for who you are._ **

He shakes, uncontrollably, hard. How is he still standing? Is he standing?

Darkness wraps around him. It’s cold.

**_But I do. I want you._ **

“Who...who are you?” His voice breaks.

 ** _Still don’t remember?_** The voice laughs. It’s not a happy sound. **_You'll learn soon enough._**

The voice fades. His head throbs.

He tried so hard to be a hero. And what has it gotten him?

He’s alone.

It’s dark.

And so very cold.

“My King.” A new voice. The darkness parts, his vision clears and he looks up at a purple skinned fiend with long curly blonde hair. The fiend smiles. “You’ve finally returned.”

King...? No. He’s no king. And why should this person look so happy to see him? He’s a failure. Unwanted.

“Come, my King.” The fiend offers his hand. Something about this feels so...familiar. Nostalgic. The darkness recedes around him as if inviting the stranger. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

Waiting? For _him?_ He’s... _wanted?_

He takes the fiend’s hand.

* * *

It’s more than Baou could have hoped for. Their King finally returns and, just like last time, he’s so very willing to follow Baou’s lead. It’s easy. An arm around the boy’s shoulders and a few gentle words, and the boy follows without question.

They found him right where the stranger said. Baou will have to remember to thank the man if he ever sees him again.

The boy is silent and complacent as they return to the castle, only showing the bare minimum of interest. Baou shelters him through the halls up to his own grand room, untouched since he was last here. The boy glances around without recognition. No matter, Baou will remind him who he is.

“Welcome home, my King.” Bowing deeply, he watches the boy from beneath his blonde fringe. Again, the boy makes that face as if he wants to cry but has run out of tears. Hope, fear, despair- so many emotions class in those eyes.

Perfect.

“Come. I want to show you.” Baou guides the boy to the floor to ceiling window draped with a curtain and pulls back the rich fabric to reveal a spacious balcony. Striding forward, he raises his hands and bellows, “Our King has returned!”

A great clamor of cheers rises from the crowd below. The boy jolts by Baou’s elbow, peering down at the crowd, pale and shaking. Baou steadies him with a firm hand. “This is where you belong, my King. You see? We have all waited for your return.” Smiling, he motions his hand over the crowd.

The boy ducks under his hand and backs away. Baou doesn’t chase him.

“Of course, you need time to readjust.” He lets the boy take sanctuary inside his chambers and pulls the curtain closed once more. “You’ve been gone so long after all. But if you feel up to it, I have a gift for you.”

Ah, the dangerous hope in those eyes when the boy looks up at him. Baou can’t stop the smile, but he can make it look more comforting than sharp. Back down the winding hallways of the castle, and Baou feels a thrill when he notices the boy doesn’t bother to keep track of the path, trusting Baou instead.

All the things he can do with that trust.

Runes and shelves of parchment and vials and books line the walls of the archive room. A podium stands in the center of an intricate circle where the Wicked Canon sits closed atop it.

The boy freezes. “Why do you have that?” His voice cracks, horse from disuse. It’s the first Baou has heard his King speak.

Fear clings to the boy, fear and guilt, and that won’t do. “The power of this object is unimaginable,” Baou murmurs in his ear, hand on his King’s shoulder. “If you can master that power, you can have anything that you desire.”

The boy trembles under his hand. “...Anything?” It’s a broken, desperate whisper and Baou knows he’s won.

“Anything.”

The boy’s eyes never leave the Wicked Canon, but Baou feels the tremors subside and his King’s spine straighten. “What do I need to do?”

Baou’s smile is all teeth. “I can show you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could go on. I could go on for pages. This is a long and slow process including Jaden having several conversations with the afterimage of his predecessor, who created the Dark Army, within his own mind. For everyone’s sanity, I’m cutting it short. The full version will eventually be in a longer fic anyway.
> 
> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have an underappreciated character you wish you’d seen more of? Give them some love today!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not exactly underappreciated via the fandom, but it will never not piss me off that Jesse disappeared for _half the f*ucking season_. He got damseled. HE GOT F*UCKING DAMSELED. Then he shows up for - what? - three episodes in season 4 AND GETS DAMSELED AGAIN.
> 
> I’m running out steam and easy to write ideas or I’d write about someone else, I promise. Maybe next year.
> 
> Set right after Rainbow Dragon sends Duel Academy back to the island.

The back of Jesse’s head slams against an uneven wall, sparks flaring beneath his eyelids. Amethyst snarls and the clawed hand leaves his throat, and Jesse collapses forward with a gasp. Is he bleeding? Doesn’t feel like it. Where are they? It’s so dark. Brilliant flashes of color light up the stone cavern as screams echo in his ears; Jesse jerks his head up and catches sight of the giant gemstones in the fading light. Okay, that’s fine, they’re still with him-

The crystals shatter before his eyes.

Breath stuck to his throat, he stumbles up. “What did you do to them?!”

His head slams against the wall once more before he’s even got his feet under him. Choking, he paws uselessly at the claws around his neck as black dots dance across his vision.

“Judai is mine!” the duel monster screams. “ _Mine_!”

“Who-?” Jesse rasps.

“You think because you call him by a different name you lay claim to him?! How many names have I called him? He is mine! My Darkness!”

“What?”

His ears are ringing, his vision wavers, he can barely breath the claws digging holes in his throat, and he _can’t feel his family._ The space of his awareness where their light usually shines is a gaping dead zone and- what if they’re dead? _No they can’t be dead they’re spirits!_ But even spirits can die, he watched one die right in front of him-

Something hard and sharp hits him across the face and sends the world spinning as he careens sideways. Jesse heaves in a breath as he hits the floor.

“ _I’m_ the one you should be paying attention to!” Yubel screeches, and as Jesse squints up at her - him? - through wavering vision, he swears he’s seen the duel monster somewhere before. “I’ve worked too long to reunite with Judai! I won’t let you take him away from me!”

Who the fuck is-- Does she mean Jaden? ‘Judai’?? Worry about it later.

Pushing himself up on shaky arms, Jesse braces himself against the wall and shuts his eyes against the throbbing headache. The room - cave? - still feels like it’s spinning. “What do you want from me?” His voice cracks as he looks up at the duel monster again. There’s a part of him, a small part, that’s terrified she’s going to kill him. And honestly? He expected Yubel to kill him. He _hadn’t_ expected to face death completely alone.

_They aren’t dead, they aren’t!_

Yubel bares her fangs in an action that could either be a smile or a snarl. “I’m going to use you as bait.”

“What?” The breath leaves his lungs as something cold lodges into the pit of his stomach. Somehow that one sentence is more terrifying than the prospect of a lonely death. 

“He may have forsaken me, but he’ll come back for _you_.” Yubel’s eyes glow menacingly in the dark room. “He loves you after all.”

Jesse almost laughs, the hysteric sound bubbling behind his lips. “Listen here, I don’t know what kind of ridiculous idea you’ve got in your head but things between Jay and I definitely ain’t like that.”

Yubel’s eyes flash. “There is more than one kind of love, foolish light child!”

“Fair enough.” Jesse isn’t going to waste his last breath arguing with a psychotic demon. If he’d ever imagined his eventual death, this wouldn’t have been high on the list. Leaning his head back again, he tries to decide if closing his eyes makes the spinning feel better or worse. He feels it then, sluggish and barely there, but a spark is spark. His family is still with him.

He stands shakily. His head is going to regret this. “But I ain’t letting you have your way either.” Bracing against the wall, Jesse drives his heel into the duel monster’s jaw.

Yubel reels backward with a snarl, and Jesse scrambles to his feet, fighting vertigo as he searches for an exit-

Sharp pain tears down his back. Jesse screams and crashes to the floor. His ears ring with the distant screams of family. Yubel descends upon him in a fury.

“You _dare_?! You insolent child!” Claws sink into the flesh of his shoulder and Jesse whimpers, automatically jerking away and nearly screaming again as his back lights up with agony. “You will only cause him more pain!”

His lungs heave, perpetually caught on the edge of another scream. The pulse in his ears threatens to drown out the creature screaming above him. His arms tremble uselessly against the cold stone. He couldn’t pick himself up even if he wasn’t pinned beneath Yubel’s weight. His back-

“I will not let him cry for you again!”

A...again? The image of Jaden’s face hovering over him streaked with tear surfaces in his mind, but Jesse’s never even seen Jaden cry. None of this makes any sense? “I just...wanna protect ‘im,” he mumbles absently.

“Protect him?” Yubel snarls. “What would you sacrifice for him? Your life? Death is easy! Try being the one who must live on after watching your beloved die, over and over!”

The pain in his shoulder flares and Jesse cries out again, shaking violently; he’s really going to die here. “I’m sorry!” he screams. He doesn’t know what he’s apologizing for.

“You haven’t changed, light child,” Yubel hisses. “But you are still _useful_.”

He doesn’t know what that means and, honestly, that’s more terrifying than the muder happy lunatic with their claws sunk into his flesh. His vision dances red and black as he lies there heaving, trying to will any amount of strength into his limbs to fight back; but even twitching his shoulder makes him want to scream in agony. How long will he even survive with an injury like this?

Claws grip the back of his head. One final desperate plea. Something. _Anything._ “Yubel-” 

The creature yanks his head back and pain blossoms across his temple.

* * *

The insufferable child finally stills beneath them. Yubel waits in case it’s just a ploy, but the boy’s breath evens out, and his erratic thoughts quiet. His guardians still chitter from their prison.

“Be silent!” Yubel flicks another wave of shadows around the deck, reinforcing the bindings. Standing, they turn their attention back to the light child. Their claws cut deep, blood already pooling on the stone floor of the cave. Human bodies are frail. They’ll have to deal with that. They need him alive for now.

They wave a claw and recoil as the hot warmth pulsates within them. The shadows scatter in its brilliance. No, damnit! The shadows are _theirs_ to command and they will not let this _infection_ stop them! Yubel bends the shadows into submission until the wounds have been crudely patched; not fully healed, but all the better; an injured captive can struggle less.

“Well, that was quite a show.” The other boy steps from the shadows, clapping. Yubel narrows their eyes at him. He is shifty and devious, willing to do anything to get what he wants. But he proved useful, and he is not the only one willing to use others for his own gain. “So he’s going to be bait, huh?” The other boy bends down to observe the unconscious light child. “What are you going to do with Jaden when you get him?”

“That’s not your concern.”

The boy’s smile is a lie. “I suppose not. Anyway...” His eyes glint as he stands.

“As promised.” Yubel stretches out a claw and scales form around the other boy’s hand. He flexes it thoughtfully, while Yubel turns their attention to another part of the cavern.

“So what now?”

The card is right where they left it, still safe inside the capsule. They have finally broken free of this pathetic prison, but the chains may still prove useful. Sliding the card somewhere safe, Yubel returns to sling the unconscious light child over their shoulder.

“Now we set the next stage.”

Judai will be theirs and theirs alone even if they have to break him to do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the [official blog](https://gxmonth.tumblr.com/) for more GX Month content!


	29. Free Day 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Share anything. Anything at all. It’s free game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just short thing today. Set the morning after Jaden and Jesse’s first duel.

_“My Judai... I’ve waited so long, my beloved Judai...”_

Jaden jolts awake. Gods, that stupid voice again! At least it’s not screaming at him this time or- He is decidedly not thinking about the dream Winged Kuriboh woke him up from yesterday. His foot bumps against another leg as he shifts - weird, didn’t Christina claim the top bunk last night? - and he turns to look at the head of curly blue hair on the other side of the pillow.

Oh yeah. It was late so Jesse stayed over instead of looking for his own room in the dark. The knot in Jaden’s chest loosens as he watches his new friend sleep. He doesn’t know what it is about this guy, but being around him makes Jaden feel calm, almost safe...

_Okay, Jaden, we’re starting to head towards creepy there, I’ve known this guy for what - a day?_ He blows a raspberry at himself.

Still, there was _something_ , a feeling, from the moment their hands touched. Poking Jesse’s cheek, Jaden watches the other’s face twitch and squints at his shoulder trying to see that blue cloak again-

“And now we’ve crossed over into delusional.” Jaden groans and rolls over, pressing a hand over his eyes. “I need more sleep.” He can feel a headache brewing. Hopefully he can sleep it off.


	30. “Gotcha!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The series ends with Judai/Jaden running off another adventure. But where is he going? Today’s the day to share your post-GX headcanons!

Chazz already has a contract and is set to go full time pro as soon as he graduates. Syrus is networking with Zane’s old contacts - the good ones, not the underground ones. Christina and Jesse have offers lined up and waiting for their response.

Jaden doesn’t have any of that because depression is bitch and he was hiding in his room feeling sorry for himself during the time he should have been prepping for life after graduation. And saving the world, again, because this is apparently his life and has been for...five millennia...?

Too damn long if even Yubel isn’t sure. But they did kinda tell the rest of Darkness to fuck off so he’s stuck with it. Could be worse.

To be perfectly honest he’s not even sure what he wants to _do_ with himself anymore, and his needs and desires aren’t the only factor now. He and Yubel are in this together for the long haul. Traveling, they decide together. See some sights, get in touch with their roots, and figure the rest out along the way. ‘Winging it’ has carried Jaden through most of his life. He knows eventually he’ll have to stop relying on that, but his mental state is still a little too fragile to try implementing any kind of rigid structure to his life yet.

Christina and Jesse pack their bags and show up on his doorstep, passports at the ready.

“Your offer letters.” Jaden stares at them dumbly.

“Will be here when we get back.” Christina huffs and shoves a passport at him. “Like hell I’m letting your dumb ass go globe trotting alone.”

Jesse poorly conceals a laugh. “We both got connections, and there’s more than one way to get into the Pro League. You’re more important.”

Welp, he’s crying again, god fucking damnit. What the hell did he ever do to deserve these two?

Shut up, Yubel, that was a rhetorical question.

* * *

They travel around for a while. They hit up local tournaments and take odd jobs for extra cash. Jaden and Yubel become something of an urban legend in places which is actually pretty cool. Christina and Jesse find their way into the pro circuit, and Jaden tags along. Eventually he goes pro too because dueling is easy, makes good money, and he found a manager willing to work with _his_ schedule instead expecting him to follow _theirs_.

Someone sets up a title match tournament where the winner gets to challenge the King of Games himself for the title. Jaden dominates that tournament, takes on Yugi, and doesn’t win. But it’s a close game.

“Next time, I’m taking your title!” Jaden proclaims as they part ways.

“I look forward to it!” Yugi grins.

* * *

The next time they meet in the arena, Jaden makes good on that promise.

* * *

The first time someone tracks Jaden down and asks for his help with a ‘supernatural’ phenomenon, he realizes there’s a market for that kind of thing. He’s been on vacation from the pros since taking Yugi’s title - avoiding the swarm of media and challengers, good grief, get a life, people - but he’s still got a hefty amount in savings. So he drops out and goes back to doing his own thing. His friends help him market himself as an investigator of the ‘weird and unusual’ and Bastion even helps him create a web page. Business is slow to start but there’s plenty of other things for Jaden to do in the meantime, ten other dimensions to check on and make sure haven’t fallen into chaos - yes, _ten_ not eleven, because he doesn’t fancy another run in with Darkness anytime this life.

Okay, make that nine. Pandemonium ain’t no place for a vacation and can keep on running just fine without him. As long as the Archfiends don’t cause trouble for other realms, Jaden is perfectly fine letting bygones be bygones.

The market for ‘supernatural’ help is a lot wider in the other realms so Jaden takes to making rounds. He can’t always take the currency back with him, but he accepts payment in food or goods all the same. It’s fulfilling in a way that Pro Dueling never was.

* * *

“Come on, guys, what is this about?” Jaden tries to pout as his two best friends guide him along by the arms. He keeps his eyes firmly shut because Yubel can and will see straight through the flimsy fabric over their eyes and some small childish part of him doesn’t want to ruin the surprise. Christina claimed this would probably top his 16th birthday and Jaden has a hard time imagining _that_.

“You’ll see soon enough,” Alexis assures him, firm hand against his back, as Christina and Jesse share a quiet giggle.

All of them are in such high spirits and the anticipation thrums through them almost like a physical force.

“Mean...!” Jaden whines but he must be grinning like an idiot.

Jesse scoffs, full of fake offense and joy. “You won’t be saying that when you see it!”

The further they take him, the more Jaden starts bouncing on their toes with every step. Even Yubel’s starting to get into it, although Jaden wonders if she already knows from reading their friends’ thoughts.

 _‘That would be cheating,’_ Yubel scoffs and Jaden laughs.

_It’s not like you can turn it off!_

_‘I can choose whether or not to pay attention.’_

“We’re here!” Christina announces, her arm abruptly leaving Jaden’s to skip forward, and he takes the opportunity to pull the blindfold off. Squinting against the afternoon sun, he looks up at...a house? A pretty big one too, two floors and everything.

“Took awhile to find one big enough and in a good neighborhood. Gramp’s game store isn’t far from here actually.” Christina bounces on her toes, grinning wildly. “We just have to sign for it. If you like it.”

Jaden blinks. “...What?”

“This is ours,” Jesse says. “All five of us.”

Yubel retreats to the corner of their mind to cackle, leaving Jaden to stare dumbly between his friends, finally landing on Alexis who smiles secretively.

“I only got a back a week ago, so these two did most of the leg work.” She motions to the grinning devils standing before the house. “They sent me photos and things so I could be a part of the decision.”

It finally clicks. A house. For all five of them. Jaden sucks in a breath and tackles them. “You assholes I fucking love you!”

“Hey! At least look at the inside first!”

They buy the house.


End file.
